


lightning before the thunder

by delsicle



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Coming of Age, Dragons, First Love, Fluff, Humor, Insecure Harry, Insecurity, Light Angst, M/M, Magic, Magic-Users, No Smut, Protective Louis, Supernatural Elements, The X Factor Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-19
Updated: 2017-08-19
Packaged: 2018-12-12 15:03:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 29,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11739510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/delsicle/pseuds/delsicle
Summary: Harry came from one of the most powerful lines of fire mages in the country. He was supposed to be a natural at magic, a prodigy, even.But instead he was in the X-Factor contestant house kitchen at two in the morning, wearing only his pants, and he had just set the stove on fire while making snacks for his bandmates and the boy he was in love with.Or, just another X Factor fic featuring dumb boys with dumber crushes, growing pains, random fires, and a dragon.





	lightning before the thunder

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nightwideopen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nightwideopen/gifts).



> Hey nightwideopen and everyone else who may be reading this. It feels good to be doing another fic exchange. I had some fun options for this assignment but I decided to go with this prompt: XF era coming of age fic where when you turn 16 you develop a supernatural power. Louis, already used to it, notices that Harry is fumbling over his decides to help him out with "training." Harry's new power causes some mishaps in rehearsals and with the other contestants, so everyone gets mad at him. Cue protective Louis almost losing his cool with his power, a big fight. And of course, a happy ending.
> 
> This was a treat to write so I hope you enjoy it. Also, Harry and Louis being in a relationship was optional in this prompt but I did decide to write them together because honestly I just can’t not have have them fall in love. 
> 
> All mistakes are mine and hope you enjoy x

_Please,_ Harry thought as he smoothed down the contestant number that was pinned to his chest, _do not let me burn this place to the ground._

There were people all around him, production assistants, contestants and family members, all of them looking equally stressed. He could hear people humming, trying to sing softly and whispering to their family or murmuring prayers to various deities and spirits.

Harry hadn’t gotten nervous until right about now, since the beginning part of the day had just consisted of signing in, preliminary auditions with show producers, tedious interviews, and a lot of waiting. But now he was starting to get jittery, but it wasn’t even for the performance itself. His voice was something he could control. The magic that had only been coursing through his body for a few months was something he couldn’t.

“All you alright, darling?”

Harry lifted his head at his mother’s voice, and then ducked his head back down and allowed her to reach out and toy with a couple curls hanging over his forehead.

“M’alright. Just nervous,” he said, but she still frowned.

“Do you need your gloves?”

“No, Mum, I’m fine,” he sighed, “Besides, I already have this,”

He tugged on the thick fabric bracelet around his wrist, which had a few enhancement spells on it that would stymie any out-of-control magic, but not nearly as much as his gaudy enchanted gloves would. But he also really, really did not want to be seen wearing those gloves on national television. They weren’t _that_ ugly, but they _were_ a clear mark of an amateur mage.

Anne pursed her lips, “Yes, but – “

“Mum, he’ll be fine,” Gemma interrupted, “Besides, the only thing he should be worrying about is fucking up his song,”

“Gemma,” Anne said sharply, and the same time Harry sighed out, “Wow, thanks,”

“What, it’s true,” she said, “And I was going to go on to say that he’ll nail it, so there’s no need to worry about it, anyways,”

“Well that’s…nice at least,” Harry managed. He uncapped the water bottle he’d been given and took a long drink. He’d be fine. He’d made it past the preliminary stages, so surely he would be alright on the main stage.

And as for setting anything aflame…

That’d be fine, too. It had to be.

“Harry Styles?” one of the exhausted-looking assistants called, and Harry gulped down his water as quickly as he could.

“That’s me!” he called out, and the assistant just gave him a tired look.

“You’re up soon, come with me,”

“Oh, um,” he said, turning to everyone behind him, “I’ll see you…after I guess?”

“Of course. We’ll be right here,” Anne pulled him in with one hand, making the charms on her bracelet knock together: a charm each baring the single flame of all fire mages, the emblem of the fire goddess, and the family crests of her maiden family, the Twists, and the Styles. Harry had his own charms strung on a chain under his shirt, pressing hard and cold against his skin.

“Good luck, darling,” she said, and then was pulling him into a hug, pressing a too-long kiss to his temple. While there were cameras rolling. Great.

He managed to pull away and followed the assistant, trying to look as confident he could, even if he was one of the youngest people there, and definitely one of the least trained.

He wasn’t here for magic. If he sang well enough they’d surely still let him into the competition even if he set one of their cameras aflame.

Maybe.

*******

Harry somehow managed to leave the studio with an acceptance into the next round of completion and no magic-based accidents. Actually, nothing happened until they were safely back in their hotel, celebrating his victory of the day, and the hotel room microwave went up in flames when Harry got a bit too close to it. The fire left a giant black scar on the wall and forced them to move to another suite, even though Anne and Robin both insisted they could clean up the mess. But even then Harry didn’t get told off for it, he just had to wear his gloves for the rest of the night as they kept celebrating.

Really, it shouldn’t have been as big of a deal as it was. Magic wasn’t needed as much anymore, and it had boiled itself down overtime and became less potent as a result. Modern medicine gradually replaced healing magic and alchemy, police forces replaced those trained in tracking magic, and just about anyone could match a bard in artistic ability with enough practice and training. Many still used their gifts and went into professions that naturally aligned to their abilities; others turned their backs on their gifts entirely.

But it still remained that the moment anyone turned sixteen, magic sparked bright and hot and ready in their veins. And if one other thing remained from the old days, it was that those with strains of elemental magic were rare, and were valued and respected as a result. In nearly every field, they sat on executive boards and surviving magic councils and were targeted and protected in equal rank. Their powers were not practical, necessarily, but to most, it still seemed to hold that someone with the ability to control fire or water or anything else did not need to stoop to a common position. It was considered an honor to the people around them when they did. 

Harry’s family, both on his mother’s, father’s, and even Robin’s side, were all long-standing fire mage lines, with his ancestors holding some of the highest magic-based positions when such ranks still existed, and since then most of his relatives had headed large magic councils alongside other Elemental families.

It was the kind of lineage that was supposed to come with not only raw power but also raw talent, which was usually the case. Gemma had always said she woke up at exactly midnight on her sixteenth birthday and opened her eyes to see a perfect ball of fire hovering over her bed. When she had reached out to touch it, it was cold and turned different colors, and vanished like the flame on a birthday candle when she blew it out.

Harry had woken up a few months ago to his entire closet catching on fire. He hadn’t gotten close enough to see if it was cold or if it turned different colors, because he started screaming and waving his hands in attempt to cast some sort of extinguishing spell. It ultimately ended in all the smoke alarms going off and his mum spending her whole afternoon carefully de-charring his closet and every bit of clothing in it. What magic did, magic could undo. Most of the time.

He had been assured that it was fine, that if anything such a large display was a sign of great potential and ability. But a couple months later, he still wasn’t grasping simple spells. He was, however, still setting things on fire by looking at them wrong. And that sort of made the talk of great potential turn into talks of concern.

But he was guaranteed enrollment into one of the best magic tutoring programs in the fall and soon he would be able to take control of the power that coursed through his bloodline.

He just had to get through at least part of his summer surrounded by TV cameras and no training in sight.

***********

Every time he’d watched the X Factor in the past, Harry kind of thought the name “boot camp” was a joke.

Like, yeah, the hours were long but it was just singing. And obviously everyone there liked singing.

But no, the name was not a joke. He was pretty sure he would die in a puddle of his own sweat doing dance routines that he shouldn’t even have to learn. Like, who danced onstage anymore?

Okay, Britney Spears. And Beyoncé. Someone as gay as he was should know that.

But whatever, it didn’t mean _he_ had to.

Luckily, he was so tired each day that apparently his magic was worn out, too, and didn’t enough make any appearances aside a few random sparks that would show up as he was taking a shower or brushing his teeth in his hotel room. He had packed his gloves but kept them hidden away whenever he could, mostly leaning on his bracelets and his own willpower to keep anything at bay. His mum had done her best to coach him before he officially had to pack and head off to boot camp, but even basic spell work didn’t stand a chance when he couldn’t even get his magic to appear or cease at will yet.

By the half-way point, Harry was trying to figure out if there was any other way he could get a singing career that didn’t involve this bullshit, and he was coming up with nothing. So he put himself through the paces and tried to fully soak up the allotted rest time they got every day.

But even that was difficult when he really had to piss and the line to the bathroom nearly stretched out the door. It wasn’t his fault he had to drink enough water to make up for how much he was sweating.

Seriously, fuck dancing.

Finally, the line thinned down enough that he could get inside, and he was tempted to groan at the fact that nearly everything urinal was occupied and he was definitely going to have to pee next to someone.

Great. Reality shows were great.

He still went over to the line of urinals, got to one of the unoccupied ones, and tried to ignore this entire situation as he went about his business.

And then, of course, for whatever reason, he was nearly done when he saw a spark go up by his hand.

Out of instinct he jerked, like moving could make it go away and not make this entire bathroom go up in flames, and the spark did flicker out at his movement, but at the same time there was a weak splash, and a laugh next to him, and Harry looked over to see a dark stain on the pair of shoes next to him. He looked up, already opening his mouth to apologize to the person next to him.

And oh, fuck.

Oh, fuck, the boy’s cute.

The boy’s _really_ cute.

The boy is would-make-Harry-question-his-sexuality-all-over-again-if-he-wasn’t-already-pretty-sure-he-was-pretty-gay level cute.

And Harry just pissed on him.

Harry decided right then he wasn’t going to stay here any longer than he had to, so he shook himself off, tucked himself away, and nearly sprinted to the sinks so he could wash up and get the hell out.

He was only half-way through soaping up his hands when another body took up the sink next to him and bumped Harry’s hip with an elbow as the water in the other sink turned on.

Harry looked up and of course, of sweet fucking course, it was the boy from the urinal.

And now he was staring at him.

Well, not staring. Looking. Making eye contact. Making eye contact with really bright blue eyes. Colored contact level blue.

Harry was going to set himself on fire. Himself and everything else in this building.

“Hi,” the boy said, and yeah, Harry was dying.

“Fuck,” he said in return, “I mean – _fuck_. Um. Sorry,”

“It’s alright,” the boy was smiling, “We’re all a bit nervous, aren’t we?”

“I guess,” he said.

The boy lifted his hand, and that’s when Harry saw that he has a bracelet on his wrist, made of clumsily woven, thick thread, with an unmistakable pale grey swirl pattern on the the flat, thick bead in the center of the bracelet. The mark of an Air Mage.

“You alright there, mate?” the boy asked, and Harry finally looked back up into his eyes.

“Oh, um,” he said, “I – “

He fumbled with the chain of his necklace, pulling it out from under the layers of his scarf and shirt and cardigan. He held the charm carefully between his thumbs once it was out in the open and then tilted it towards the other boy. The boy looked it over, and then glanced back up, grinning.

“Well look at that,” he laughed, “Didn’t think I’d meet another Elemental here. Not many of us around, are there?”

“No,” Harry managed, “Not really,”

The boy smiled and tilted his head, “What’s your name, love?”

And oh.

_Oh._

A boy has never called him _love_ before.

That’s.

That’s _something_.

“Harry,” he said, his voice suddenly so clumsy and thick for his own mouth, but it made the other boy smile.

“Harry,” the boy repeated, “Harry the fire starter,”

Harry stuttered, but the boy just kept smiling.

“I’m Louis,” the boy said, “In case you were wondering,”

“Hi,” Harry managed, and fuck, he said hi before, he was so stupid –

But Louis laughed and smiled.

“You know, I really hope you make it through, Harry. I want to see more of you,”

Harry just blinked at him, and then Louis turned towards the bathroom door and sighed, “Oh, fuck me, we probably have to go do more drills or something by now, don’t we? I guess we should go,”

“Oh,” Harry said, “Yeah, alright,”

Louis just smiled again and then left before Harry could even say anything else, and he just watched him go. He went back to the sinks and washed his hands again, then held his necklaces between his palms, offering up a prayer to whatever spirits wanted to listen that he could both survive boot camp with that fucking boy around.

*******

                                                                                                                                           

Harry was not prepared to be eliminated.

He had thought about it, of course. He had rationalized the possibility of it. But now he was standing on a stage, and the list of contestants going through was so short, and he wasn’t on it. He was going home, end of the line unless he tried to go for it again.

And he was not prepared. It was too soon. He had been here barely at all. He had done bullshit drills and short performances and he hadn’t even gotten to really perform, to have fun with it, to get anything he wanted to get out of being here.

Apparently, no one else was prepared, because after they were all hurried off stage, he was surrounded with crying boys. Harry had been to family funerals where there was less crying. Honestly, it was kind of a good thing because he was sniffling and his eyes were burning and he could hide in the crowd while he tried to fight it.

There were cameras looming everywhere, and he was determined that he was going to wait to cry until they went away. They couldn’t stay for long; how much footage of a bunch of teenagers crying do they even need?

But the cameras didn’t go away. They stayed steady, and then, one of the producers was strolling over, probably to give some canned speech while they picked up more and more footage.

But instead, he pulled out a piece of paper and scanned the crowd before his eyes dropped back down to the page.

“I’m going to need a few people to come with me,” he said, and then began to read off some names.

Harry’s was one of them. He blinked, and tried to keep his face neutral, because a camera was probably trained on his face right now. He tried to push towards the front of the crowd, and a few people glared at him before realizing he was on the list, and then just wordlessly let him pass.

He kept his hands clasped as he went to the front of the group and waited for the others that were called to come forward, too. And then he had to squeeze his hands so hard he thought they were going to lose feeling when he looked over and saw Louis.

Louis from the bathrooms. Louis the Air Mage. Louis the pretty one, somehow looking even prettier.

If his magic somehow managed to spring free, it was going to be enough to burn this place to the ground, but at least then it would take the cameras with it and there wouldn’t be footage.

“What’s happening?” one of the other boys asked the producer. Harry maybe recognized him from boot camp, but then again Harry had never been able to get a good look at his face because his hair was so long.

“Just come with me, they want you back on stage,” the producer said, and one of the other boys scoffed.

“What, they haven’t gotten enough footage yet?” he asked. His voice was thick and angry – and incredibly Irish -- and his cheeks were bright red, but he had his arms crossed tightly over his chest and his eyes were hard as he stared down the producer, who just sighed.

“Just come with me,” he said again, and soon they all followed after him.

Louis hadn’t looked over at Harry yet, and honestly, he was kind of glad. He could barely move his feet forward as they went back onto the stage.

There was a small group of girls onstage, too, and Harry glanced over at them as he took his place onstage with the rest of the boys and faced the judges and the cameras behind them. They had already filmed an elimination onstage with everyone else, he didn’t really know why they would do it again.

The next few minutes passed extremely slowly, and yet Harry felt like he could’ve blinked and missed them.

They were forming two more groups for the show. They had done it before, of course, but Harry hadn’t even considered they would do it now, so soon after eliminations, and directly on camera.

They were asked if they were interested.

And for whatever reason, Harry opened his mouth and said they were.

He had met only one of the boys standing on stage with him, and he had just made a massive fucking decision for them.

But in the next moment, they were all cheering and jumping and oh, they were okay with this. They wanted this, too, and now they were going to stay. Together.

Harry turned, and he immediately caught Louis’s eyes. Right. Somehow in the middle of everything he had forgotten this also meant that he and this strange, pretty boy were going to be together a lot more now.

Louis was smiling as he looked at Harry, probably in a “I know at least person here” sort of way. And then suddenly he was jogging towards him and launching himself right into Harry’s arms. Harry lifted his arms up to return the hug, except Louis pushed himself off the ground and was then fully in Harry’s arms, his legs wrapped around his hips. Harry’s feet stumbled and he spun a bit, blinking up at the boy who was clinging to him so easily.

This was too much to take in.

Soon Louis dropped back to the ground, and his arms were still around Harry still but only for a little while longer, and then they were being ushered off stage again.

As soon as they were safely away from the cameras, they started talking. They swapped names quickly, and Harry clung onto every name as tightly as he could because he wasn’t about to forget their names and get off on the wrong foot. The boy with the long hair was Liam. The Irish one that had snapped at the producer earlier was Niall. The last one, who Harry sort of recognized since he had managed to slip out of dance practice before very publically being brought back, was Zayn. And then there was Louis. He could never forget him. 

“This is crazy,” Niall said. The boy was nearly vibrating, and he was also _yelling_ , “Thought they were going to harass us again just for some ratings, didn’t even think they would do something like this,”

“I,” Liam choked and shook his head, “Didn’t even think they’d do more groups, last time I was here they didn’t have much luck with them,”

“Oh, shit, that’s right!” Niall said, “You were on two years ago,”

“Yeah,” Liam shrugged, and then ducked his head. Oh. That was good. Maybe Liam could help them out.

Maybe this would be really good.

And then Louis spoke and yeah, this could be better than good.

“So what do we do now?” Louis asked, grinning widely at all of them. His eyes seemed to linger a bit longer on Harry but he wasn’t sure if that was just a trick of his imagination or not.

“Well, we have some time before the show,” Zayn offered. His voice was quiet and thickly accented, and his eyes darted carefully between all of them as he spoke, “Maybe we should get to know each other,”

“Yeah,” Harry said. And then, he heard himself saying something mildly reckless.

“We could go to mine,” he offered. Four heads turned to him immediately and he stuttered, “Uh, I just mean my stepdad has a place where we could go. Lots of room and stuff,”

They were all still looking at him, and he couldn’t tell if they all loved or hated or were indifferent to the idea.

“That sounds great,” Louis’s voice said, and it sounded too good to be real that Louis was agreeing with him, but he was, “Doesn’t that sound great, everyone?”

“Sure,” Niall shrugged, “Why not?”

“Okay,” Zayn said, and Liam just nodded.

“Great!” Louis said, and then pulled out his phone, frowning as it vibrated. He picked up and shook his head as he pressed the phone to his ear.

“Mum, I can’t talk, they put me in a band. Bye,” he said, and then pulled his phone away and clicked to another application, “Let’s see – “

“Did you just hang up on your mum?” Liam asked, and Louis just looked up and shrugged.

“Yeah. It’s fine, I’ll call her back. Now, numbers, we need everyone’s numbers, and Harry, we need yours especially, and – “

Harry just blinked as Louis tapped at his phone, and then slowly lifted his eyes to the three less familiar faces around him.

This wasn’t what he had signed up for. And it definitely wasn’t something he had even bothered to think about, let alone prepare for.

But maybe this was better than nothing.

***********

A few weeks later, Liam showed up to Harry’s house first, carrying a full suitcase and a sleeping bag.

“Hey, mate,” Harry said, and Liam didn’t even smile, just nodded a bit.

“Hi,” he said.

“You can, like, come in,” Harry said, and Liam just looked straight forward again.   

“Oh,” he said, shifting to move past Harry into the house, “Am I the first one here?”

“Yeah,” Harry said, “Do you want something to drink? Or like, anything? Food?”

“Not really,” Liam said, and so Harry just sighed and reached out, silently offered to take Liam’s bag. He took it down the hall to one of the freshly made up guest rooms, and then when he returned Liam was just sitting on one of the couches, perfectly still.

“So, you doing alright?” Harry asked, and Liam shrugged.

“Yeah, I’m fine,”

Harry resisted the urge to sigh. This might be a long few days.

But then the doorbell rang again, and Harry jogged to find Niall had shown up. He didn’t even have a full suitcase, just a paper bag filled with clothes and a rather ragged looking sleeping bag, but he looked excited and once he was in the living room he actually managed to make Liam talk, which was a nice improvement.

Zayn showed up about twenty minutes later, and then Anne and Robin ducked in just to say hello to everyone before going off to dinner and leaving them all alone. They were all talking now, even if it was just about school or to ask Liam about his last time on the show a couple years ago. But even though it all seemed to be going well Harry kept being bothered by the giant gap in seemed to be hovering over his living room.

And then, nearly an hour and a half after he had asked everyone to show up, there was a knock on the door, and he nearly tripped over himself going to answer it.

Louis had finally showed up with an old duffel bag slung over one shoulder, hair in his eyes and a wide smile as he wrapped his one free arm loosely around Harry’s shoulder.

“Hi, my little fire starter,” he murmured, “Sorry I’m late,”

Harry didn’t even have time to react to that before Louis was pulling away from him and going into the house, yelling for everyone else. Harry forced himself to close the door and move back into the living room, where Louis had quickly taken over the whole room, his voice echoing on the walls. Harry’s brain didn’t even what to process, Louis’s words to him at the door or how quiet he had been when he said them.

Eventually, he had to physically shake his head and force himself to go into the living room.

It was going to be a long few days for an entirely different reason.

*******

After they dropped off take away dinner, Anne and Robin made an excuse to slip out yet again to give all of the boys space to hang out. They ate, and then ended up sitting in a circle on the living room rug, looking at each other and trying to figure out what to do next. They were talking a bit more now, which was great; Liam was sharing a few stories from the last time he was on the show, Niall was talking about how much he hated school and how he wasn’t looking forward to going back in the fall, Zayn was talking a bit about how he was just glad boot camp was over, and Louis –

Louis’s voice was just constant, his laugh and his voice and his random stories and his hands, which moved as he spoke and as he reached out to grab onto all of their shoulders as each of them spoke.

He hadn’t touched Harry very much, but maybe that was because Harry had barely spoken because he kept just listening to whatever Louis was saying.

Maybe being in this band wasn’t a great idea. Maybe this was going to be his downfall.

“Hey, Harry?” Louis said, and it took him a while to focus on the fact that yes, Louis was speaking directly to him.

“Sorry, yeah?” he said.

“Do you have anything else to drink?”

“Oh, yeah,” Harry said, already bracing himself to stand up, “I can go get some water – “

“No, no,” Louis shook his head and smiled brightly, “I think a night as monumental as tonight deserves something a bit stronger, don’t you?”

“Oh,” Harry said, and he dipped his head in a nod, “Um, Robin usually lets my mates and I have wine if we stay in the house, but – “

“Okay, great,” Louis said, and he was already up and going to the kitchen.

“What’s he doing?” Niall asked, and Louis just turned back and looked at him.

“I’m getting wine, obviously,” Louis said, pulling out a bottle from one of the cabinets, “Oh, this looks alright,”

“Louis,” Liam said, “That’s not – “

“Jesus Christ, Liam. It’s a soft red. They serve babies this at Mass, calm your tits,” he said, “And Harold said we’re allowed,” he turned to Harry, blinking in a way that made his fucking girl-eyelashes flutter, “Right, babe?”

Harry was pretty sure his fucking brain exploded at Louis calling him “babe” but he still managed a “Oh, yeah” that made Louis cheer and pour everyone a glass. Harry turned back to the group, hoping his face wasn’t burning. Well. It definitely was but at least the room wasn’t burning along with it.

“Harry,” Liam leaned in, “You don’t have to,”

“I’m fine,”

“Your face is bright red,” he said, “You don’t have to do what he says, just because he’s fucking loud,”

“Liam, it’s fine,” he hissed, slapping his hands over his cheeks. He managed to take a breath right as Louis came back with their glasses.

“Here we are!” he announced, and began handing the glasses out, frowning when he got to Harry, “Should we turn the air on, mate? You look red as hell,”

“M’fine,” Harry managed, “Don’t worry,”

“Well, alright,” Louis smiled, and Harry forced himself not to get any redder as he accepted the wine from Louis.

And then Louis’s fingers brushed his, and Harry felt a surge of heat go through his palm.

He yelped and pulled back just in time that sparks crackled out of his palm, uselessly dissolving in the air, but it was small enough that didn’t burn Louis or even touch the glass.

Everyone looked at him and he just cleared his throat, trying to laugh but instead sounding like he’d just gotten strangled.

“Sorry,” he said, and then reached out and grabbed his drink again, so fast his magic wouldn’t have time to react.

“Well,” Louis said, and then sat down directly next to Harry, “That reminds me. What can everyone do?”

“Well, ah,” Harry said, trying again to laugh and this time doing a slightly more convincing job, “You all know mine,”

“And Louis’s,” Niall butted in before anyone could even say anything.

“How do you know mine? I haven’t done anything,”

“Right, but you’re wearing about six different Air Temple tokens on your wrist,”

“Oi, not my fault we have to wear these,” Louis said, holding out his wrist and shaking his bracelets, “Don’t you all have goddesses?”

“Of course we do,” Niall said, “We just don’t show it off like you elementals do,”

“Whatever,” Louis rolled his eyes, “Alright, come on. Tell me what we’re working with here?”

“Well, I’m a healer,” Niall offered, “But I was never gonna go into healthcare, so I thought why not try the singing thing out,”

“And I’m a Bard,” Zayn said, “Not for singing, though, so I can’t give us a leg up there. For other stuff,”

“Other stuff?” Louis prompted, and Zayn ducked his head.

“I paint,” he said, “And draw. Just a little,”

“Cool,” Louis nodded, and then turned to Liam, “Two-timer? What’ve you got? I don’t remember from your episode,”

“Oh,” Liam shrugged, “Mine’s a bit useless,”

“It’s magic, it’s all fucking useless these days,” Niall scoffed, then cut his gaze towards Louis and Harry, “No offense, I mean. I know it like… _matters_ or something to you lot,”

“No offense to me. But now you’ve interrupted Liam,” Louis said, lifting his chin, “Come on, then, Liam, what’ve you got?”

“Well, uh,” Liam said, “I’m a speaker,”

“An animal speaker?”

“Not really other kinds,”

“Wicked. Can you charm Harry’s cat for us, then?”

Liam blushed, shaking his head.

“No, it’s not – I can’t just force control on them, that’s – “

“It was a joke, Liam. I’m joking with you,” Louis sighed, and Harry could’ve sworn he saw Liam relax a bit, “Okay, great. We’ve had a drink, we’re shared talents. Now what?”

“I, uh,” Harry swallowed, “I have a pool?”

“Now that,” Louis nodded, “Is a great idea,”

*******

They spent most of the evening splashing around in the pool, which was fine because it felt a little too awkward to fill all the spaces with something concrete to say. They had plans to practice songs or at least brainstorm the next day, and they’d have time for more icebreakers in between.

Now everyone was huddled up in various guest rooms, at least for tonight, since apparently they weren’t at the point where they could spend both all night and all day chattering.

After all the other rooms’ lights were out, Harry slipped out onto the back porch and went to sit down near the pool. The icy blue water glistened in the porch lights, the water undulating gently in the mild summer breeze. Harry sighed, setting down the bag in his hands and then removing the shallow tea lights from inside, setting them in a straight line in front of him. Once he was done he wrapped his arms around his folded knees and leaned forward, staring at them evenly as he tried to focus.

He willed just one of them to light up, the one furthest on the end. He pictured the flame starting, the heat and friction pooling, and then the first speck of yellow-orange to erupt and grow into a perfect little petal of flame. And then he pictured the wick directly next to that left-most candle springing to life, and then the next one, and the next one, until he had a line of perfectly lit candles.

He held on tight to that picture as he rubbed his hands together and then extended his palms out.

Nothing happened.

He closed his eyes, breathed, and then extended his arms further, trying to latch harder onto the image of that picture line of light. Still, there was nothing, not even a vague itch in his palms. He tried yet again, leaning all the way forward, murmuring one of the way Fire Temple prayers he had memorized, and wiggled his fingers a bit. His palm itched and there was one single weak spark that forced its way out between his right pointer and middle finger, and then it was gone again.

“Damn it,” he huffed, stamping his foot. He sighed and leaned forward, wrapping his arms around his knees again and setting his forehead on his knees.

“Stupid,” he muttered to himself, “Stupid, stupid, stupid,”

A frog croaked in the distance and he sighed. Why couldn’t he have been from a family of animal speakers, like Liam? He could just talk to frogs all day and wouldn’t have any legacies to answer to.

He lifted his head up, breathing in deep, and was just getting ready to try again when he heard the sliding glass door open behind him. He jumped and turned.

It was Louis. Of course it was Louis, why would the goddesses let it be anyone else?

And Louis looked good. God, he looked good. Soft and rumpled and glowing in the back porch light, a blanket wrapped around his thin shoulders. He smiled, and Harry could have sworn there was more light in his smile than in any flame he could ever hope to produce.

“Hello, Harry,”

“Um, hi,” he swallowed, “What are you doing out here?”

“I stopped by your room but you weren’t there, so I went looking for you,” Louis said, and his voice made it sound that like much should have been obvious.

“Why…why did you go to my room?”

“Because I wanted to see you. Duh,” Louis grinned, and then nodded towards the unlit candles lined up on the pool deck, “What have you got there?”

“Oh. I’m just practicing,” Harry said, “Figure if anything goes wrong, the pool’s right there and I can put the fire out,”

“Right,” Louis nodded, “Would that work, though? Thought I read something about swimming pools being so full of chemicals they can light on fire, like polluted lakes or summit,”

“Oh,” Harry said.

“It’s rubbish, probably. I read a lot of shite,” Louis said, “Can I sit next to you?”

“Yes,” Harry said, far too quickly, but Louis didn’t seem to notice as he just smiled and sat down. As soon as he did, he spread one end of his blanket out with a patchwork wing.

“Come on,” he coaxed, “Come snuggle with me,”

“Are you sure?” Harry asked, and he shrugged.

“Wouldn’t be asking if I wasn’t,”

So Harry moved closer, until he was tucked into Louis’s side, and then the other boy wrapped the blanket around his shoulders.

“Now see, this is nice,” he said, rubbing Harry’s arm a little bit, “A little break is nice, isn’t it?”

“I guess so,”

“Exactly. Most of my spell training was me taking breaks,” Louis said, and then rubbed Harry’s shoulder again, “That was a joke, you can laugh,”

“Oh,” Harry said, but couldn’t find the energy to do so, “You’ve already done your training?”

“Part of it, yeah. One of my aunts taught me,” he said, “But honestly, I’d be happy to win this thing just so I don’t have to train anymore,”

“You didn’t like it?”

“It was boring,” Louis shrugged, “For me, at least,”

Harry nodded and tried not to look directly at Louis.

“I can’t imagine being bored,” Harry murmured, “If I did well, at least,”

And then Harry froze, because Louis had moved to put his hand right on his knee. Harry lifted his head and glanced over at him, his eyes wide, and his gaze soon met Louis’s, who was just looking at him easily.

“There are things bigger out there than magic, Harry,” he said softly, his fingers moving carefully over Harry’s knee, enough to make him freeze and forget how to breath, “And I think those are the kinds of things you’re meant for,”

Any breath Harry had taken in was never going to make it to his lungs, because he was pretty sure he had forgotten how to get it there.

“I don’t know what I’m meant for,” he murmured. He wasn’t even sure if he meant to say it out loud, but there is was, hanging in the humid air between them.

Louis just smiled and turned back to him, reaching over to pull the fabric of the blanket tighter over Harry’s shoulder, making his breath stutter once more.

“Maybe,” Louis said softly, his fingers smoothing over the blanket, “We can find that out together someday,”   

*******

The Judges’ House is giant, and gorgeous, and so close to the ocean that if anyone cracked open a window the whole space automatically filled with the smell of sea salt and tourists’ sunscreen. There were cameras everywhere, along with assistants and make up artists who kept leaving their foundation-stained makeup bags all over the place.

It would probably be a lot more fun if all of the contestants didn’t have to spend most of their time doing interviews, pre-filmed segments or rehearsals.

At least, that’s what Louis seemed to decide when they were in the middle of rehearsal one afternoon.

“We should go to the beach,” he said, the upper half of his body nearly hanging out of one of the open windows of their chosen rehearsal room.

“No, Louis,” Liam immediately said, “We’re not going to the beach,”

“Why not?” he murmured. He pulled him more securely inside, and then placed his chin in his hand on and tucked one leg under him as he continued to look at the ocean outside. Harry was kind of glad Louis had spoken, because now he had a real reason to look at him aside from just being distracted by the way the sun hit the slope of his nose.

“Because we have to practice, Louis. We perform in like four days,” Liam said.

“Oh, boo,” Louis huffed, “Do you realize we’re in Spain, Liam? On the beach? When have you ever been to Spain and gotten to go to the beach?”

“Fine. We’ll go to the beach. But we need to practice first,”

“Gross,” Louis sighed, but still slid off the window seat and back onto the floor, right next to Harry. His arm easily snaked through Harry’s elbow, and he leaned into his shoulder before turning his attention back to the group. But he still stayed glued to Harry the whole time.

At one time he looked up, blinking his wide eyes once before rolling them, probably in reaction to something Liam was saying, which Harry couldn’t properly hear because he was mesmerized. Louis looked away just as quickly, but still, it was enough to draw Harry out of everything that was happening.

He wondered, not for the first time, if Louis liked boys.

It was a dangerous thought but he couldn’t help but have it. Any girlfriends – or boyfriends – from back home hadn’t come up at the house, and he wasn’t going to force the issue yet. He wanted Louis to just keep touching him and being normal for a while. He could survive Louis being straight, but he wasn’t sure he could survive him being one of those straight guys that wouldn’t touch anyone that might be interested in them. Harry had had too many of those experiences already.

There was a knock at the rehearsal door, then, and they all stopped chattering and looked up to see a rather tired-looking production assistant opening the door and wandering into the room.

“Hey,” she sighed, “We heard you guys don’t have a band name yet,”

“Oh,” Liam said, “Right, we’re sorry. I’ve actually been doing some thinking if we could just – “

“No, no, forget that. Just – here,” she held out a clipboard that had previously been cradled under her arm and handed it to Liam, “We’ve had group names on tap for almost five years now. Just pick one off the boy band list,”

“Really?” Liam asked, “Because really, we’ll come up with one quickly – “

“Just pick one,” she interrupted, “You want to change it after the show, by all means. But for now, it’ll be easier just to pick one from here so you won’t have to get it approved later,”

“Oh,” Liam said, and then scanned the list, “Can everyone look at it first?”

The assistant made a rather indifferent noise, and the list went around the circle to all of them at least twice, until by the end it had ended up with Harry for the second time.

“Well?” the assistant asked expectantly, and Louis turned to Harry.

“Harry has the clipboard, I think he should pick,” he said. Liam sounded like he was about to protest, but Harry caught the assistant’s glaring eyes, and he looked down at the clipboard to scan it again.

“Um,” he managed, his throat suddenly dry with so many eyes on him, “Honestly, I think One Direction sounds the least stupid,”

“Great,” the assistant said, and then her hand was sweeping in and taking the clipboard back, “I’ll let everyone know about your choice,”

And then she was gone just as quickly as she’d come, slamming the door behind her.

Louis clapped as soon as she was gone.

“Well I for one think Harry picked an excellent name,”

“I kind of liked ‘Roundabout,’” Liam murmured.

“Well that’s because you have terrible taste, Liam,” Louis said, and then threw his arms around Harry. It was enough to make him stop breathing for a second.

“Whatever,” Liam sighed, “We need to practice anyways, no matter what we’re called,”

“You’re right Liam. But for the record, Harry very wisely decided to call us One Direction,”

Niall groaned, but Louis just turned to Harry and grinned brightly, making Harry’s treacherous brain drum up more ‘what if Louis likes boys what if Louis likes ME’ thoughts.

He forced himself to push the thoughts out of his mind. Whatever. He wasn’t going to find out anytime soon, anyways.

*******

“Yes,”

One word, and Harry was pretty sure it was going to kill him.

Because the question one of the show staffers had asked was “Do any of you have girlfriends back home” and “Yes” had been Louis’s answer. It had been very quiet, and kind of slow, sure, but it was still a “yes.”

The interviewer sped right along like Harry’s life hadn’t just ended on camera, but luckily what she was hurrying into was a conclusion for their pre-recorded interview, and then the cameras were turning off and they were free to go.

Of course, they had to go right back to rehearsal, where he would have to be around Louis for another few hours, and suddenly Harry just wanted to go take a nap and ignore this issue forever.

Louis had a girlfriend. Which was fine. There was a tiny part of Harry’s heart that still said that maybe Louis was bi. Except it wouldn’t matter if he was, because he had a girlfriend, and he was off limits and damn it, he was probably just straight.

Harry was working up the nerve to say he needed to go catch up on some sleep just so he could be alone for a bit, but then of course Niall spoke.

“Lou, why didn’t you tell us at Harry’s house that you had a bird?” he asked.

Harry looked at Louis and clutched his hands together extra tight just to lower the possibility of igniting the entire room. But Louis just rolled his eyes and said the last thing Harry had expected.

“Because I don’t,”

“But – “ Niall started, and Louis shrugged.

“There’s a girl, but she’s just a friend, I swear. Except, well, most people from my school think we’re together,”

“Why?” Niall was still pressing, and Louis was still accompanying every answer with a shrug or an eye roll.

“Because I tell them we are, and she tells them we are, and so people believe it,”

“You tell them you’re dating? But you’re not?”

“No,”

“So why are you even – “

“Because I’m fucking _gay_ , Niall, Jesus,” Louis said, and Harry’s grip on his own hands loosened immediately.

“You are?” Harry burst out, and then immediately regretted it when Louis gave him a look. It wasn’t not even an annoyed look, just a curious one, but Harry still felt cornered.

“Yeah,” Louis said with a shrug.

“Well cool, then,” Niall interrupted again, “You got a boy, then?”

“Please,” Louis huffed, “Pretty sure I’m the only bloke who likes dick within a hundred miles of my hometown,”

“Um,” Liam cleared his throat, “I hate to interrupt all this, but we have to go back to practice,”

“Why doesn’t that surprise me,” Louis sighed, “Alright, let’s go,”

So they went right back to the practice room, and Liam made them go through the song until even Zayn snapped and said he wanted to take a break, and they all just went to the kitchen and made up some sandwiches with what was left in the cupboards.

Harry avoided looking at Louis the whole time, mostly because he knew that if he focused on Louis and saw that he wasn’t looking over at him as much as he usually did, he would know he fucked up badly, and he didn’t need that hanging over his head when he had a reality show of all things to rehearse for.

It wasn’t until they were on their way back to their rooms that Harry managed to catch up with Louis.

“Hey,” he said, and then reached out, grabbing his wrist. Louis stopped, looking down at Harry’s hand and then back up at him, his face open and curious.

“What’s up?”

“I’m, um, I’m sorry if – I’m sorry I burst out earlier,”

“Oh,” Louis said, and then shrugged, “That’s fine, really,”

“But I don’t care if you’re gay! I mean, like, it’s great, I mean – “ he paused, forcing himself not to look at Louis as he caught his breath, “Well, I kind of think, maybe I might be, too?”

“Might be what?”

“Might be gay,” he said, and then shook his head, “I mean, I am gay. I’m pretty sure of that. I don’t know why I said I might be. Um. Yeah, I’m gay, too,”

Louis didn’t laugh, then, just tilted his head and lifted his brows.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Harry breathed.

“Well, good for you,” Louis smiled, and then tugged on their joined hands, “Let’s go to bed, now. Liam’s going to kill us if we don’t need enough sleep,”

Harry just exhaled and nodded as he let Louis tug him back down the hall.

Okay. So Louis was gay. And he knew Harry was gay. And there didn’t seem to be much else there.

He tried not to think too hard about what all this meant.

*******

The next day, they finally got to go to the beach.

It was a nice enough day that everyone else seemed to have the same idea. The Belle Amie girls had somehow found an inflatable beach ball and they were trying to play volleyball with it, Cher had apparently nearly drowned Matt in the water an hour earlier, and Rebecca and Katie were off on a walk together.

Harry was sweating badly, to the point he had to keep wiping down his face with the corner of his beach towel to hide it, but he hadn’t gone towards the water yet because Louis was apparently set on tanning for the day, and Harry wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to sit next to a topless, gay Louis all day.

He’d brought a book with him – something random he’d borrowed from one of the many bookshelves that were scattered around the house for some reason – and he really was trying to read it so he at least wouldn’t look creepy for staring, but Louis kept asking him questions that made him look up and close his book.

“Do you think that if we had made it through as soloists, we would still be friends?” Louis asked.

“What, us and the others?”

“Well, yeah. But just me and you, would we talk?”

“I hope so, yeah,” Harry admitted, and Louis nodded.

“Yeah, I think we would, too,” Louis said, “I’d probably talk to the others, too. Maybe not Liam. I think he hates me,”

“I don’t think he hates you,”

“Yeah, well, I’m going to figure out his issue, and then I’m going to make him like me. It’s part of my master plan,” Louis said, and then turned his head and looked over Harry, “Oh, sorry, you were reading,”

“I – “ Harry started, but then he was interrupted.

“Hey, you pricks!” Niall shouted, “Why haven’t you come swimming with us yet?”

Louis lifted his head and looked over the same moment Harry did, and he saw the rest of the boys were trudging up the sand, sunburnt and soaking wet.

“We’re tanning,” Louis said flatly, and Niall scoffed.

“Maybe you are, but Harold’ burnt in about seven different places already,” Niall said, and Harry lifted his hands and covered his blistering shoulders, which only made Niall laugh, “Can’t believe you haven’t burnt yet, Lou,”

“I’m too pretty to burn,”

“Yeah, well, you can be pretty in the water,” Niall said, “Come on, band activity,”

“Hm,” Louis lifted his head and glanced over at Liam, “Liam, are you going to go back to swimming now?”

“Oh,” Liam said, “I mean, yeah, I was planning on it,”

“Excellent,” Louis said as he climbed to his feet, “Then I’ll come. Harry?”

Harry nearly got his feet tangled in his towel with how quickly he stood up, but luckily no one saw because Niall was clapping and cheering.

“Hell yeah! Band activity!” Niall cheered, and then turned and jogged towards the water. Liam and Zayn ran after him, but Louis walked slowly, and of course Harry kept pace with him.

“So, um, this should be fun,” Harry offered.

“Yeah,” Louis smiled, “And we can hang out with Liam, too. Remember, master plan, Harry, master plan”

“Right, of course,” Harry nodded, and Louis laughed and grabbed him by the shoulder.

“Maybe once we’re done we can fly a kite or something,” he grinned, “I’m pretty good at flying kites,”

“You can tell the wind where to go,” Harry offered, “That’s cheating,”

“Magic isn’t cheating,” Louis said easily, and then grabbed Harry by the hand and pulled him, “Come on, before Niall gets pissed at us,”

Harry’s feet splashed into the water, and he started a bit at the cold, but as he was pulled further in he felt the water was warm with the sun, and by the time he was up to his chest, he barely even noticed the cold.

“Are we swimming out?” Louis asked, and Liam immediately shook his head.

“Zayn can’t swim,” he said quickly, and then turned to look at Zayn, “Right?”

“Right,” Zayn admitted quietly, and Louis just shrugged, “That’s okay. We don’t have to swim for real,”

He picked up a handful of water, and before Harry could react, Louis splashed him directly in the face.

He sputtered and blinked at him, water flying off his lashes, and when he was able to open his eyes, all of them were laughing, Louis especially.

“Why me?” was the first thing Harry thought to say, and it just made Louis laugh more.

“Because it’s fucking funny,” he said, and then waded over to Harry and grabbed his arms, still grinning, and then pushed him, until Harry was tripping on the sandbank and falling back into the water fully. His head went under and he tried to pop up as quickly as possibly, shaking his head and reaching up his hand to push his hair back. This time, Louis was smiling widely at him, and he saw Liam behind him, shaking his head.

“Louis, stop doing that to him,” Liam protested, and Louis just laughed and reached out a hand.

“He’s alright,” Louis smiled, “Aren’t you, darling?”

Harry opened and closed his mouth and then just blindly reached his hand out and let Louis grab his hand. Louis pulled him a bit too close to his chest and then quickly took a small step back, giving them a little room.

“I’m fine,” Harry managed, probably a little too late, but Louis still smiled brightly and then turned.

“Well, Christ, if we’re going to be in the water, don’t just stand there, move,” he said, and then swept his arm into the water, pushing some of it towards the rest of the boys, who tried to shuffle and splash away, all of them laughing. Louis nudged Harry’s arm, and he snapped slightly back to reality. He reached his arm under the water and then pushed his hand forward, splashing some water towards Niall, who cursed him out and then splashed away. Louis laughed, and Harry joined him, his voice quieting only a little when Louis tossed his arm around Harry’s shoulders.

“Maybe you should’ve been a water mage, love,”

Harry swallowed and then smiled, “Maye,”

Louis nodded, and then before he could speak, another wave came and splashed at them, hitting Harry in the eye and Louis full-on in the face. Louis sputtered and then turned his head, and Harry looked to see Liam, of all people, standing close to them, his eyes wide and his hands up in the air.

“I’m sorry!’ he shouted, but instead Louis laughed.

“Holy shit, Liam’s having fun!” he yelled, and then splashed him again, “Spain works miracles!”

Liam and Louis began fully splashing each other, or rather Louis splashed him and Liam laughed weakly and tried to splash back, and then the rest of them joined in, and soon they were just tearing up the surface of the sea with their hands, spraying each other with sun-warm water and chasing after each other. Harry was laughing so hard his lungs burned, and every time he turned Louis was in sight, wet and tan and happy.

This was good, Harry thought. This is the best.

And then Louis took a step back in the water, and in a moment, his face shifted from a wide smile to squinted eyes and a pained crease in his forehead. 

“Ow, mother _fuck_!” he shouted, and then tripped backwards, closer to the shore. Immediately, everyone stopped and surged towards him, and Harry moved embarrassing fast, running to Louis and grasping for his shoulders.

“Are you okay? What happened?” he gasped out, and Louis shook his head and winced again.

“Something fucking bit me, ow!” he shouted again, and stumbled back, again closer to the sand.

“Sit down, sit down,” Niall’s voice came, and then he was moving forward and helping Harry get Louis onto the beach, “Can I see?”

Right. Niall was a healer. He could make this better.

Harry stepped away and watched as Niall helped Louis down onto the sand, and then bent over to examine the foot Louis was stretching out.

Immediately, Harry saw it looked red, and swollen, and very, very painful. Niall frowned as he looked it over, loosely gripping Louis’s ankle to move his foot back and forth without touching it directly.

“I don’t know what this is, but – “ Niall started, and then he was quickly interrupted.

“It’s a sea urchin,” Liam piped up, and everyone turned to look at him. He flushed and looked down at the sand, “I…I know a lot about animals,”

“Yeah, Liam, you can talk to them, that bloody makes sense,” Louis snapped, and Liam flushed with embarrassment before turning to Niall.

“Niall, can you do anything?” Liam asked.

Niall gave Louis’s foot another quick look and then quickly turned back away and shook his head.

“Sorry mate, I only have a few months of spell training. I can do scrapes and bruises and maybe a stuffy nose and not much else,”

“Fuck,” Liam exhaled, and Louis just rolled his eyes.

“It’s fine, I’ll just go to the hospital,”

“In the middle of the show? We have to rehearse, we can’t without you,”

“I have backing harmonies for the most part anyways,”

“Yeah, but it’s a five-part arrangement, we can’t – “

“Liam, oh my God, shut up, I’m going to the hospital,” Louis said, “Also, I didn’t mean what I said earlier. It’s cool you know about animals. I’m just in a lot of pain. Ow, can someone call me an ambulance?”

“I already did,” another voice piped up behind them, and they looked up to see Cher standing nearby, waving her flip phone at them. Niall gave her a thumbs-up and then put a hand under Louis’s armpit.

“Okay, lads, everyone grab a limb, we’re carrying him to the front of the house,”

“I can just limp there,” Louis protested.

“No, you’re getting carried. Harry, take his other arm,”

Harry rushed forward to do so, and Louis sighed but allowed Liam and Zayn to take his legs and lift him off the ground, half-carrying and half-dragging him across the thin stretch of beach back to the house.

Louis’s head lolled a bit and he looked at Harry and smiled thinly.

“I won’t take long, love, don’t you worry,” he whispered, and Harry frowned.

“I’m not worried,” he lied, but by then Louis had closed his eyes, his body remaining braced as they kept carrying him.

*******

They all sat on the house steps long after the ambulance had taken Louis away. They didn’t really speak, just sat and processed together. Harry tried not to panic too much, but he couldn’t help it. Louis was hurt, and in pain, and he wasn’t there to help him. He had no reason to be there, but, still.

The only thing that finally broke him out of his own head was Zayn’s quiet voice behind him.

“Do you, um, like him?” Zayn asked, and the question was quickly followed by Niall’s scoff.

“Zayn, for God’s sake just because we have two gay guys in our band doesn’t mean they’re going to like each other,”

“No, I do,” Harry said a bit too quickly, turning around to face both of them, “Like him, I mean,”

Niall just stared at him, making Harry’s ear burn.

“You’re fucking with me,” Niall said.

“No, I really do,” Harry insisted, and then turned away away, “You can’t tell him,”

“He’s obsessed with you, mate, I think he wouldn’t mind,” Niall said, which made Harry’s cheeks burn.

“He is not,”

“Yeah, he kind of is,”

“Well, you still can’t tell him,” Harry snapped. His palms felt hot and he pressed them hard together, “Now can we stop talking about this?”

“Sure, mate, whatever you want,”

“Um,” Liam cut in “Actually, um – Harry, I should – I don’t know if you’re going to be upset by this – “

“Just tell me,” Harry sighed.

“Um, I kind of think…Louis might like… _me_?”

They all just blinked at Liam, and then Niall closed his eyes.

“Mate,” he said, “ _Mate_ ,”

“What! He might! Remember earlier, he asked if I was going swimming before he – “

“I don’t – I don’t think he likes you like that,” Harry said weakly, “I mean, he said earlier that he just wants you to not hate him – “

“I don’t hate Louis! We have our differences. A lot of differences. Like, a _lot_ of differences – “

“Liam,” Niall groaned.

“But I don’t hate him!”

“Right. Well. I think he just wants to try to be your friend, so, um,” Harry said, “Unless, shit, maybe he does like you…”

“Okay, both of you, shut the fuck up,” Niall snapped, “Harry, Louis is obsessed with you, so there’s no way he doesn’t like you. Liam, just because a bloke is gay doesn’t mean he wants to bone you,”

“I never said that!” Liam sputtered.

“Well, you inferred it. Zayn, back me up here,”

“I, um, agree?” Zayn offered.

“Okay, great. Issue closed. Mystery solved,” Niall sighed, “And now we can stop talking about it because today has been hard enough on our Harry,”

Harry huffed and lowered his head, mumbling “Thanks” and then just wrapped his arms around his knees. He felt a hand on his shoulder a moment later, and glanced behind him to see Zayn offering him a soft smile.

“I’m sure he’ll be fine, Harry. It looked bad but it’s just a sting, he’ll get through it,”

“Yeah,” Harry licked his lips, “I guess,”

He turned away and then cast his eyes to the driveway, everyone around him falling quiet.

He pressed his palms together while he was at it.

The least he could do was not make Louis return to a burnt-down house.

*******

The second the car delivering Louis pulled up, Harry shoved at least three people in the hallway out of the way so he could race down the stairs.

“Harry! Harry, sweet Jesus!” Niall shouted from behind him, “I’m sorry everyone, he’s blinded by love, he doesn’t know what he’s doing,”

“Shut up!” Harry shouted behind him, but he didn’t even care if Niall had just announced that to the whole house. Louis was back, and they were going to get to be the first ones to see him.

Harry’s feet hit the front stairs of the house before the rest of the boys had even gotten through the front hall, and he got a glimpse of the car in the driveway. He heard the rest of the boys finally come behind him when he saw the top of Louis’s head emerge from the car, and then Harry saw him hobbling out of the car, assisted by one of the show assistants.

Harry couldn’t help it. He sprinted forward as Louis began to cross the driveway.

Everyone else followed quickly behind him, but Harry still got to him first and tossed his arms around Louis’s waist. There was a camera there, of course, because there were always cameras everywhere, but luckily the rest of the boys quickly piled into a massive hug, and Louis was hugging and thanking all of them. His fingers still gripped particularly tight to Harry’s shoulders, though.

They all clambered around him and started to lift his limbs to carry him to the house, like they had done on the beach, and Louis was laughing and saying he was fine the whole time, but he still didn’t tell them to put him down until they were safely inside the house.

“Okay, come on, we only have about an hour left before we perform,” Liam said, already jogging down the hall to one of the practice rooms, “We have to practice, why aren’t you all _running_!”

“I’m crippled, Liam, shut the fuck up!” Louis shouted, but still laughed, “Tell him I’ll be there in a minute, lads, go on. Harry’s going to help walk me there,”

“I am?” Harry said, and then cleared his throat and said, “Um, yeah, I am,”

Zayn gave him a small smile and Niall just rolled his eyes, and then they were on their way down the hall. Louis tossed an arm around Harry’s shoulders, and Harry quickly slipped an arm around Louis’s waist. Purely to keep him steady. Only for that.

“I’m, um, really glad you’re okay,” Harry murmured, and Louis looked over and smiled brightly.

“Yeah?”

“Well, yeah,” Harry said, “I was...worried you know. That you, uh, wouldn’t show up in time for the performance,”

“What, and let me little fire starter down?” Louis grinned, “Never,”

Harry’s throat felt dry but he still swallowed and found the ability to speak.

“Well, I mean, we were all – we all wanted you to come back,”

“Yes, I know,” Louis kept smiling, “But when I was getting my foot cleaned with rubbing alcohol that made me what to cry, I got through it because of you,”

Harry just blinked, and he stopped walking, making Louis stop, too.

“Me? Why?”

“Because you’re going to be something special, and if we flop on our first performance just because of a sting on my foot, then where is that going to get you? So I came back,”

He said it so easily, and Harry just stared at him, and Louis looked back with a wide smile and then tugged on Harry’s shoulders.

“Come on, then,” he said, “Let’s go practice our award-winning cover and make Liam proud,”

***********

The official contestants’ house back in the UK was smaller, and definitely not on a Spanish beach. There were scheduled times to go into the studio for vocal rehearsals and choreography and pre-filmed segments and there were cameras milling around the house constantly to record candid moments and a few pre-filmed online segments.

Still, it was a sign they’d made it far enough.

The house was massive but the rooms were still limited, especially with so many people still in the running. So while most of the other contestants only got one or two roommates, if any, each of the bands got clumped together into one rather small room of their own.  

That was made slightly better when Louis tackled Harry onto one bed and announced they were going to have to share a set of bunks, because of course they were.

Harry was sure that was just because Louis felt a bit sorry for him and all his magic issues, or because he was the youngest, or he was fucking with him in some way, because way this attention was getting ridiculous. But when Louis was tickling him and then pinning his shoulders to the bed while grinning and nearly shrieking while everyone else just looked on and tried their best to unpack their bags, he stopped caring why Louis was doing this in the first place, as long as he kept it up.  

*******

“So are we, like, still not allowed to tell Louis you like him?” Niall asked.

Harry snapped his head up from where he had been focusing on an unlit candle on the dining room table and glared at Niall, who was at the other side of the table. He was eating a bowl of cereal and looking at his laptop screen, apparently reviewing the video diary that had just gone live on the show’s website.

“What? No. Jesus,”

“Really? You sure?” Niall asked, looking back at the screen, “Because I really do think he’ll be okay with it…”

“No. You can’t,” Harry insisted, “God, why do you keep saying you’re so sure he likes me?”

“Because he looks like he wants to eat you with his eyes in that video,” Zayn interrupted. They both looked at him and he shrugged.

“What? I watched it earlier,” he said, and then looked at Harry, “I’m still not telling him, I’m just pointing it out,”

“That’s – that’s – whatever,” Harry huffed, and then folded his arms and set his chin on the back of his hands, staring straight at the candle again, “I’m trying to focus,”

“Like you’ve been trying to focus for the last half hour?” Niall said.

“Fuck off,”

“Oh, relax, I think I smelled a bit of smoke earlier,”

“Niall, shut the fuck up,”

Harry’s head lifted and he turned around to look behind him at the sound of Louis’s voice, and nearly had an aneurism when he saw Louis was wandering into the kitchen in just his joggers, with no shirt in sight.

“The hell are you doing up?” Niall asked.

“I woke up to only the sound of Liam’s snoring, which would be bad even if he didn’t sound bloody anxious even in his sleep. So I decided to find something more entertaining. And it’s a good thing I’m up because I heard you being mean to our young Harry,” he said.

“We weren’t being mean,” Niall cut in.

“Zayn wasn’t mean, you were. Don’t bring Zayn into your bullshit,” Louis said, and then set his hands on Harry’s shoulders, “You doing your candles again, love? How’s that going?”

“Not, um, great,” Harry managed, “Niall was just telling the truth,”

“I don’t care, doesn’t give him the right to be a prick,” Louis said, “You keep practicing, love,”

Harry ducked his head, trying to keep his face out of view as Louis rounded the table, picked up Niall’s unfinished cereal, sat on the edge of the table and began eating.

“Hey, I was going to finish that,” Niall said.

“Not anymore you’re not,” Louis said simply, “What are you watching?”

“Nothing,” Niall said quickly, cutting his eyes to Harry and then back to his laptop just before he closed it, “Absolutely fucking nothing,”

***********

Harry’s magic was going to kill him from the inside out, he was sure of it.

They were in the middle of rehearsals, and he should’ve been focused on his harmonies and his minimal choreography, but instead he kept being overcome with hot flashes, and his palms kept heating up randomly, and a few showers of sparks would burst around his fingers and then extinguish when he really, really did not need them to show up.

It was the third day in the row this had happened, and they had to keep starting and stopping rehearsals because of it, and everyone was annoyed.

Well, everyone except Louis, who kept looking over at him and would occasionally reach out a hand and set it gently on Harry’s shoulder.

“You feeling alright there?” he asked quietly. It was the fourth time that day Harry had felt feverishly hot, and the second time sparks had started up in his hands, and he was sick of this shit and not being able to control it.

“God, no,” he gasped out, and Louis frowned.

“Do you need water?” he asked quietly, and Harry shook his head.

“I – “ he managed, and then his nose pricked with the smell of smoke, and he looked down between them and saw there was a small handful of fire crackling in between his fingers. He screeched and jumped back, clapping his hands wildly to put it out. Even after it was gone, the stage was sprinkled with rapidly dying embers and the air smelled like smoke, and when he looked up, he saw several crew members, and the rest of the band, staring at him.

Except Louis. Louis was just looking at him evenly, his jaw set.

“Let him rest,”

“But – “ one of the producers spoke up, but Louis cut them off.

“Let him rest,” Louis said sharply, “I’ll go tell someone he needs to go back to the house,”

“Louis,” Harry protested weakly, but Louis set a steady hand on Harry’s arm and squeezed as he looked steadily back at the producer. The man looked like he wanted to protest, but then his eyes flickered to the swirled bracelet on Louis’s thin wrist, and his face tightened.

Elementals still had some leverage in most debates, no matter how young they were.

“We’ll call him a car,” the producer said, and then he disappeared off to the side of the set. Louis turned back to Harry with an easy smile once he was gone.

“There, darling,” he said softly, reaching out to fix Harry’s curls, “You can go home now,”

Harry’s throat tightened.

He didn’t want to go home.

He wanted to be able to stay here and practice and not have to chase away his powers.

And he didn’t want Louis to have to fight his battles for him. He didn’t want Louis to see him as someone who needed his battles fought, period.

But when Louis was looking at him earnestly, he couldn’t fight him.  He just nodded, and then easily let one of the assistants come collect him when the car was ready for him.

*******

The rest of the band got home late in the evening, and when they got back, Harry was sitting on the couch, wrapped in a blanket with his magic-controlling gloves on, playing cards with Esther and Sophia since Belle Amie had gotten back from rehearsals fairly early.

“Hello,” Louis chirped as he walked into the room, immediately going to Harry and setting a hand on the top of his head. The rest of the boys greeted him as well, but then quickly went out of the room just as quickly.

“Did you take good care of him today?” Louis asked the girls.

“Yes, they did,” Harry answered quickly, “Don’t worry,”

“Yeah?” Louis prompted, and Harry nodded.

“Yeah, they made soup after I got here,” Harry said.

“And we let him play about ten games of bullshit,” Esther pitched in, holding up her cards.

“Did they now?” Louis said, directing the question to Harry.

“Yeah, they did,” Harry said.

“Well, good,” Louis said and then leaned in, whispering against Harry’s temple, “Wish I could’ve stayed with you today,”

He pulled away before Harry could turn his head and say anything back, and then Louis just set a hand on his head and pet his hair. His eyes flickered to the gloves on Harry’s hands, and Harry bit his lip hard, wishing he had thought to hide his hands before Louis walked in.

“Don’t worry,” Louis said softly, “The producers said they’d just say on the show that you had stage fright,”

“But that’s so _lame_ ,” Harry protested, and Louis shrugged.

“Hey, it’s something,” Louis said, “Are you feeling well enough to eat dinner with us?”

“Yeah,” Harry immediately, already going to pull off the blanket, and Louis laughed.

“No need to rush, I need a shower first, and I’m sure most of the others do, too. Finish up your game,”

Louis ruffled his hair a bit roughly, sending his curls flying, but Harry didn’t even have the heart to fix his hair again until Louis was out of the room. He turned back to the girls, and Esther was already looking at her phone, but Sophia was just looking at Harry and smiling carefully.

“I, uh, heard Louis’s gay,” she said, and Harry swallowed hard.

“Yeah, he is,” he said, looking down to his cards.

Sophia nodded and then shuffled through her cards, keeping her eyes down as she did.  

She didn’t say anything else, and Harry lost the game because he was distracted.

At this point, he honestly didn’t expect much more.

*******

That was supposed to be the end of Harry’s magic troubles.

Surely the universe or the goddesses would show him some mercy and not give him another issue after the disaster of that week’s rehearsals. But apparently things were going too well, since they’d managed to pull together a pretty solid performance and make it through to another week.

They were all giddy with excitement, naturally, and up late celebrating in their room. Niall had suggested snacks, which Louis had quickly agreed with, and Harry had eagerly agreed to run down and make them some popcorn and hot chocolate. Louis had grinned and grabbed Harry’s ankle and called him “love,” which only made Harry want to sprint down the stairs to the abandoned kitchen as quickly as he could.

There was microwave popcorn and hot chocolate packets in the cabinets, which would’ve been fine. But there were also several bags of chocolate chips, and loose bags of popcorn kernels, and plenty of pans.

Which was how Harry got the bright idea to make his own homemade hot chocolate and popcorn on the stove.

He got out everything he needed, oil and pans and chocolate and milk and popcorn kernels, and he started working, heating up the stove and putting the oiled pans on. He hummed as he went, and then sang as he opened the chocolate chip and kernel bags.

This was so fun, he thought as he poured the chocolate out.

Maybe he could just stay on this show and in this band forever, he thought as he got the popcorn kernels out.

Maybe he should try to kiss Louis someday, he thought about one second before the entire stove caught fire.

He screamed immediately, backing away, and soon his screams were joined with the blaring of the overhead fire alarms. He tried to wave his arms, get the flames to react, to do anything, because judging by their shape they were clearly magic-based. But they just kept growing and shifting, and Harry kept his palms on his temples and continued to try and focus on doing something, anything. But the fire was growing all the same.

Harry came from one of the most powerful lines of fire mages in the country. He was supposed to be a natural at magic, a prodigy, even.

But instead he was in the X-Factor contestant house kitchen at two in the morning, wearing only his pants, and he had just set the stove on fire while making snacks for his bandmates and the boy he was in love with.

Harry’s mind cleared for a moment, just enough for him to trip backwards and look around, trying to find a fire extinguisher, or a large bowl that could hold water, or really anything.

But then the stove hissed, and when Harry looked back, the flames were gone, instead covered in a thin layer of water.

“Well, Jesus,” he heard a nervous voice behind him chuckle, and he froze, not wanting to turn around.

He still turned, though, and when he did he was greeted by the sight of Louis standing in the doorway, his arms spread out.

“What did you do?” Harry asked, his voice wavering.

“I put it out,” Louis said simply.

“With what?”

“With water,”

“But you – “

“There’s water in the air,” Louis said simply, “If you know how to use it, it’s quite helpful,”

That only made Harry squeeze his eyes shut. Damn it. There were air compounds in fire, too. By that logic Louis would be able to spark but a better flame than he could, and _Harry_ was supposed to be able to do this. It was supposed to be easy for him. It was --

“Now, now, love,” Louis sighed, “No use in crying,”

Harry had even noticed he was crying and shame pooled in his belly. it was one thing to nearly burn down the contestant’s house, but to cry in front of a boy who probably already pitied him?

Fuck.

He heard footsteps and voices, then, and he froze, because it was far too many footsteps to just be one of the other boys wandering down the hall to check on them. And then suddenly the room was filled with people, all of them rubbing their eyes and looking exhausted. Slowly, they all began to turn to the charred stove, and then to Harry standing in the middle of the kitchen with his arms wrapped around himself.

And then they were all talking, and they all sounded frustrated.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” someone muttered.

“Can he not bloody do this in the house?”

“We have rehearsals again at the arse crack of dawn, Christ,”

Harry curled into himself a bit, trying to make himself, smaller, and he just wanted to say he was sorry, to apologize for nearly burning down the kitchen and then waking everyone up on top of that, but his throat felt too thick.

But before he could even try to swallow down his sloppy hiccups, he felt Louis come over and press against his side, pulling his arms around Harry’s waist. He grasped him for, hoarsely whispering, “Louis.”

“Everyone go back to bed,” Louis said evenly, his voice strong. No one moved, and he looked back and forth, “Come on, Christ, you all said you were tired, just go to bed, leave him alone,”

A few people murmured and wandered away at that, but quite a few stayed.

“Can’t very well fall back asleep now,” Katie mumbled, and Louis’s eyes immediately snapped to her.  

“That’s your bloody problem, then,” Louis said.

“Maybe it’s his fault for not knowing what the fuck he’s doing,” she snapped, “If he’s going to fuck up that bad, he should’ve waited a few years before he came and bothered us,”

The shutters of the windows near the kitchen slammed open then, and Harry heard the front door do the same even though it was latched tightly. Then, there was slamming upstairs, and he knew that nearly every door upstairs was opening and closing too.

Like the air around them was forcing them to move.

“Oops,” Louis said tightly, “Now I’ve disturbed everyone, too. Suppose you can be mad at me, since I did it on purpose,”

“You’re a pain,” Katie huffed, “I can’t wait until you’re out of here,”

“Like fucking wise,” Louis returned.

When she wandered off, everyone else quickly followed, a few shooting quick final glances behind them as they went. Soon, there were only three people lingering, and Harry didn’t mind them being there.

“Want us to stay?” Niall asked.

“No, go to bed,” Harry said, “It’s okay, really,”

“Alright,” Niall yawned, “Guess we’ll see if anyone still likes us in the morning,”

“If they’ll hate anyone, it’s me now,” Louis said.

“Well, no one’s ever going to hate you, so we’re safe,” Niall said, and then turned to Liam and Zayn, “Okay, let’s go,”

They wandered off back into the hallway, and Louis kept his back turned to Harry until their footsteps disappeared down the hall. Then he exhaled, his shoulders dropping, and he turned back.

“You didn’t – “ Harry hiccupped and then swallowed, hiding his face, “You didn’t have to do that,”

“Doesn’t matter if I had to or not, I did,” Louis said. He came closer, then, and reached out to grab Harry’s hands, “Come on, darling. It’s not your fault,”

“Yes, it is,”

“No, no,” Louis chided, “You’re learning,”

“That doesn’t make it less of my fault,”

“Well, you have a better excuse,” Louis said, “I almost upended a tree when I was sixteen. Got a little too zealous with my wind practice,”

Harry snorted, shaking his head. Maybe it was made up. Probably.

“Let’s get you to bed. My mum always said everyone looks better after a good sleep,” Louis said.

“What if I do something stupid again, though?” Harry moaned, “What if I set the damn bed on fire while I’m asleep?”

“Well then you can sleep with me tonight,” Louis said, “In my bunk. How does that sound?”

Harry froze, his shoulders stiffening and he blankly blinked at Louis, who just smiled back at him and smoothed his thumbs over the back of Harry’s hands.

“I’ll calm you down before you can do anything, I promise,”

“Um,” Harry said, and then trapped his tongue between his teeth a little too hard before releasing it and allowing himself to speak again, “Okay?”

It came out as a question but Louis still smiled and squeezed his hands.

“I just need a second,” Harry said, “Like, um, I should at least try to sort things out here,”

“Want me to help?”

“No, no, don’t worry about that,” he said quickly, “Just…go upstairs, I’ll be there soon,”

“Alright, then,” Louis smiled easily, always so easily and so _brightly_ , too, and then allowed his hands to slowly drop from Harry’s before he slipped out of the kitchen.

Harry forced himself to listen to his footsteps overhead, to breath, and then reached over to grip the counter. He wasn’t worried about facing the rest of the house in the morning, or setting something on fire at rehearsals by accident. For now, all he was worried about was sharing a bunk with a boy he wasn’t even sure liked him.

He was so worried that he kind of forgot he’d promised he would clean up the kitchen, and instead forced himself up the stairs, down the hall, and back into the room that was slightly opened.

The rest of the boys had apparently fallen asleep, because none of them popped up to stare at him or offer a weak “Hello.” Louis, though, immediately sat up in his bunk to look at him.

“Don’t chicken out on me now, Styles,” he said. Harry swallowed and shuffled across the room, his feet pushing past several piles of discarded clothes as he went.  

“Is this really okay?” Harry murmured, and Louis just yawned and nodded before collapsing back on his pillow.

“Yeah, ‘course,” Louis mumbled. But Harry just stood still, and Louis eventually reached out, curling his fingers towards him, “I don’t bite, sweet, come on,”

Harry blushed a bit, and honestly, thank the goddesses for the dark because he didn’t think he could live down blushing like that in front of Louis if he could actually see.

He moved closer, and Louis lifted up his blanket and shifted his body so Harry could crawl in next to him. Once he was there Louis wrapped his arms loosely around Harry’s waist, his hands so easily finding purchase on his hips.

“Maybe you could’ve put on more clothes, but this is fine,” Louis mumbled against his forehead, and Harry’s mouth went a little dry. Louis didn’t seem to mind that he didn’t answer, though. In fact, Louis seemed pretty quiet, quiet enough Harry probably would have thought he was already asleep if not for the fact his breath seemed too even and controlled, and his arms seemed too locked for someone that was asleep.

Maybe Louis was uncomfortable. Maybe he should go.

“I’ll go,” Harry said out loud, but Louis squeezed his waist.

“Don’t you dare,” he mumbled, and okay, Harry could stay.

Maybe he wasn’t supposed to put his arms around Louis, maybe only one person in this cuddling arrangement was supposed to do that. But Harry found himself putting his arms around Louis, as well, forcing himself to not touch him waist or his hips or his thighs but instead just to lock his hands around his back. Louis chuckled lightly but didn’t say anything, just nuzzled his nose into Harry’s hair.

It took Harry a little too long to fall asleep.

*******

The next leg of rehearsals went fine.

Harry didn’t set anything aflame, not in the house or the cars or the studios or anywhere else. He still felt his skin itching and his anxiety rising, but now Louis was next to him far more than usual. He just seemed to pop up randomly, squeezing Harry’s wrist or grabbing his hand or getting him a bottle of water. Or on some occasions, Louis would grab his face or his hair or tackle him to the ground and bury his face in Harry’s neck as he tried to bite him.

Harry hadn’t figured out why he was doing all that yet, but he didn’t mind.

Something he still needed to sort out, though, was why Louis let Harry into his bunk for the rest of the week.

Because that was a thing. In theory, this should set his magic haywire and burn the house down to ashes in an instant. But as soon as he crawled into the crowded bunk he can feel Louis’s magic coating his entire body like a breeze, tampering down the worse parts of his magic, keeping it comfortably inside his skin.

But there was more. There was so much about Louis Harry wanted to touch, and he couldn’t even tell if it was out of curiosity or out of…the normal reason, more primal reason to want to touch someone. He wanted to touch Louis’s hair and stare at his eyelashes, wanted to run the pads of his fingers over his cheekbones and his pouty lips. And when Louis pulled himself close, pressed him enough into Harry that he could feel every curve and valley of his body, Harry wanted more. He wanted his hands on Louis’s wiry arms and his bony wrists, his flat, flat chest and his soft belly, his thick thighs and his curvy hips.

Louis was the most confusing thing in the world, and yet somehow made perfect sense. If Louis were a girl, he would be the kind Harry would get especially confused over; Harry would probably still want to touch Girl-Louis’s lips and hair and body. But even with his high voice and his pretty face, Louis was all boy, and that only made it feel more right; he was a boy and Harry was a boy and they both liked boys and this could work, maybe, and Harry didn’t know if that was a good or a bad thing.

But none of that mattered if Louis was just taking pity on him because a confused kid from boot camp and the only other elemental in the house, one who clearly needed help at that. Maybe Louis considered Harry a project he needed to take care of because Louis had said that he had little sisters and liked to take care of things and also he was just a good person, and Harry maybe just happened to land at the center of his charity.

Eventually this would stop, Harry told himself all week, from the second he woke up in Louis’s bunk that first morning to right after they stepped offstage after their weekly performance. Eventually he would stop being the center of Louis’s attention, and the touches and invitations to bed would wane as Harry got his shit together.

In the meantime, Harry was fucked.

In fact, Harry was going to lose his mind if Louis doesn’t kiss him soon.

He didn’t just want to touch anymore. He wanted Louis to touch him. He wanted to know what Louis’s mouth felt like against his own mouth, what he tasted like, how he kissed. He wanted Louis’s belly pressed against his and Louis’s fingers in his hair and one of Louis’s legs slotting in between his own. He wanted Louis to call him “love” and “sweet” and “darling” and “petal” because no one else got those words except Harry, they were his words and he wanted them from Louis more and more, like he wanted Louis more and more.

He didn’t need this. He had rehearsals and filming and a fucking fire power that was still unhinged but he spent half his time thinking about this pretty, pretty boy that the universe decided to tie him to for goddess knows how long.

 Hopefully a while longer.

Hopefully enough for Louis to kiss him just once.

*******

As the competition bled into another week, Louis still wouldn’t leave Harry alone.

Every breakfast and dinner, Louis made sure he was sitting next to Harry, and after a couple days of him pushing people out of the way – jokingly or not – to the chair he wanted, people stayed clear of the seat to Harry’s right. During rehearsals, Louis tried to stay close to him, and even when they had specific stage directions to create distance between them, Louis would bounce right over to him during breaks, asking him meaningless questions and squishing his cheeks between his hands.

Normally, Harry wouldn’t mind. But that itching suspicion that Louis just felt sorry for him was constantly at the front of his mind now.

He finally snapped one night when everyone else had gone to bed, but Harry decided to stay up and lay on his back in the living room. He was listening to their chosen performance song for that week on his dinosaur of an iPod, and he had his eyes closed as he tried to catch every note, every beat, every breath taken in between words.

And then he felt a body come lay down next to him, and he sighed.

“Hi, Louis,” he said as he opened his eyes, and then rolled over onto his side to see the other boy right in front of him, smiling the way he always did.

“Hello,” he said, “You didn’t come to the bunk, so I thought I’d come looking for you,”

 _To see if I was burning something to crisp or crying over how inadequate I was,_ Harry thought, but he just pressed his lips together and stayed quiet.

Louis reached out and plucked the earbuds from Harry’s ears, tilting his head as he did so.

“What are you doing, then?” he asked, and Harry shrugged.

“Just listening to the song for the week,” he provided, and Louis nodded.

“Good. Solid decision. Bet Liam didn’t even think of that one,”

Harry’s face felt hot, and he shook his head, his throat feeling thick as he went to speak.

“You don’t – “ he swallowed, “You don’t have to do this,”

“Do what?” Louis asked, blinking at him, and God, he was never going to get over how pretty he looked when he did that, when he did anything. Which was just proof he needed to get this conversation over with.

“All of it, Louis,” Harry breathed, “You don’t have to protect me from anyone, or pay so much attention to me…”

“But I want to,” Louis said, still smiling, “I don’t _have_ to protect you, you’re right. But I like paying attention to you,”

“But why?”

“Because I like you,”

“No, why do you really do it?” Harry asked, and Louis frowned, and damn it, even the way his eyebrows and mouth creased were pretty, pretty, pretty.

“Because I like being around you, I just said that,”

“But – “ Harry shook his head, “You feel sorry for me, don’t you?”

“Why – no, why would I?”

“Because I’m one of the youngest ones in the house, and I have barely any magic, and the only time anyone is okay with that is when I’m with you,” Harry spit out, and then pulled away, trying to draw himself farther away from Louis as he rushed on, “I – look, I like hanging out with you, too, but I don’t want you to do it if you’re just pitying me,”  

Louis just stared at him, blinking, the tinny music from Harry’s earbuds still spilling out between them, and Harry felt his stomach roll.

This was it, he’d fucked up. He was never going to get to hang out with Louis again unless it was in rehearsals, and who knew if the band would last for another week or a year. What if they had to stay together forever in this awkward silence remembering the time Harry had told him not to pity him –

Then, Louis lunged forward and kissed Harry on the mouth.

It was so fast that Harry couldn’t even react to it, couldn’t even close his eyes or lift up his hands or make any sort of noise. He couldn’t even do that afterwards, either, not even Louis was pulling back, his face flushed and his eyes wide like he just ran a marathon.

“I don’t pity you,” Louis said, his voice a bit too firm, “I _like_ you, you fucking idiot,”

“You – “ Harry’s mouth fish-gapped, opening and closing as he blinked, “Oh,”

“Yeah, _oh_ ,” Louis shook his head, “I’m sorry I didn’t ask you if I could do that. I don’t know if I ever could have asked you,”

“No! No, that’s okay. I liked it,” Harry said, “You can ask me next time. Not that there needs to be a next time, if you don’t – “

“Harry,” Louis interrupted, and then reached out and squeezed his hands, “I don’t pity you, Harry. I think you’re very cute, and very smart and funny and talented and that’s all stuff that would make me want to hang out with you normally, only you’re cute and that makes me want to do more than hang out with you,”

Louis said it all in a rush, and Harry’s brain was tripping over itself to keep up with it all, and just when he thought he was done processing it all, Louis spoke again.

“And yes, I would like to kiss you again. Can I do that?”

“What do we do after that?” Harry managed, and Louis lifted the shoulder that wasn’t pressed to the floor.

“We get to say we’ve kissed each other,”

“No, no, after that,” Harry said.

“We’ll figure it out. Now can I kiss you?”

Harry stared back at him, his mouth dry, his mind tired, and yet he still managed to speak.

“Please,”

Harry could appreciate it more when Louis leaned in the second time. Louis’s lips were soft, and gentle, like, _ridiculously_ gentle. But he did press down a bit firmly at least, and his mouth moved a bit stiffly, but Harry’s probably did that too, and it was Louis, so he kept letting him keep kissing him regardless.

Louis pulled away eventually and just blinked at Harry, and this time his mouth was red and nearly the same color as his cheeks.

“That was…nice,” Louis said, and Harry nodded a little too quickly.

“Yeah. Nice,”

“We should go to bed,”

“Okay,”

They got up, and Harry grabbed his iPod off the floor and began tangling the earbuds around it as they walked to the hall.

“Let’s do this again sometime,” Louis said, and Harry laughed and nodded.

“Yeah. Let’s,”

Louis smiled, and then bumped his elbow, “Can I hold your hand?”

“Why?”

“I don’t know, to have something to do while we walk back to the room? That and I just want to hold your hand,”

“Oh,’

So Harry let him, and Louis laughed when their fingers connected.

“You have big hands,” Louis said, and Harry frowned.

“You’ve seen my hands,”

“They feel bigger than they look,”

“That doesn’t make sense,”

“You don’t make sense,” Louis smiled, and then swung their joined hands together, “Can I kiss you again?”

Harry let him, and Louis’s lips were still clumsy and chapped and somehow tasted like chocolate biscuits and his other hand roamed and tried to grip clumsily onto Harry’s hip as he kissed him.

And yet Harry thought he could get eliminated from the show right then and there and still have gotten everything he ever wanted. 

***********

Louis pulled Harry out of the house early one morning before rehearsals, while their lips were still bruised from kissing and Harry’s hair wasn’t even brushed yet. He laughed as Louis pulled him along, his feet tripping over the grass of the back garden as they went.

“What’s happening?” he laughed, and Louis looked behind him, his eyes bright. He let go of Harry’s hand and then swung his arms out, spreading them wide.

“You’re going to try to learn some things,” he announced.

“What?” Harry said, “Is my singing not good?”

“Oh, God, love no,” Louis said immediately, dropping his arms and instead grabbing Harry’s hands again, “I meant we’re going to learn magic,”

Harry froze.

“Magic?”

“Yeah,” Louis nodded, and then flipped Harry’s hands over and ran his fingers carefully over Harry’s soft palms,” Magic,”

Harry couldn’t help it, he stepped back. But Louis grabbed for his hands again, tethering him and keeping him from going too far.

“Why am I learning magic?” Harry asked.

“Because I thought maybe you’d like to,”

“I – “ Harry fumbled, “I’m taking lessons in the fall. You don’t need to teach me, I’ll learn then,”

“Maybe you won’t be home in the fall,”

“Well, I’ll just take them whenever I get home,” Harry rushed on. He didn’t want to fight with Louis, but he also had the feeling this wouldn’t go well.

“Look, how about this,” Louis said, “You want to get better at magic, I want to get better at kissing you. So when we practice, we’ll kiss. And hopefully after a while we’ll both get better,”

Harry didn’t answer. Instead he cast his eyes to the grass and tried to keep his voice steady.

“What would you teach me?” he murmured, “You’re not even a fire mage,”

It came out a bit too strong and he winced, but Louis just squeezed his hands again. Harry thought he was going to lose circulation with how much squeezing Louis was doing.

“Magic is really all the same,” Louis said, “It’s about energy flow and all that shit. I know that much, and that’s really the base you need to get started. We won’t do spells or anything specific, I obviously don’t know how that works for you,”

Harry stared down at his feet some more, kicking his bare toes into the cold, wet grass.

“Will you kiss me even if I don’t agree to do this?” he finally asked, and Louis laughed.

“Yes, but I’ll do it more if you do,”

Harry nodded and then lifted his gaze, and Louis leaned forward and caught his lips with his own before he could even prepare for it.

“So,” Louis grinned when he pulled away, “Should be start now?”

Harry just stared at him, his mouth open and fresh with the feeling of Louis’s lips, and then he felt himself nod.

“Sure, why not,”

*******

 

“Are we still not allowed to tell Louis you like him?”

Harry froze half way through getting a yogurt tub out of the fridge and turned to look over at the dining table. Niall was looking down at his Nintendo DS, even though he’d clearly just asked Harry a question. Liam and Zayn were sitting next to each other on the opposite side of the table, apparently trying very hard not to look at Harry expectantly.

“Well, no,” Harry managed, and then closed the fridge door and brought his yogurt over to the table. He hadn’t forgotten that the other boys didn’t know about them, obviously. He’d just honestly kind of forgotten that he had sworn them to secrecy about something Louis clearly knew by now.

“Okay,” Niall said, still tapping at his DS, “Cool,”

“Why do you ask?”

“No reason,” Niall said, even though a few seconds later he said, “Where do you two go in the mornings before rehearsals?”

“Oh,” Harry said. Finally, he could answer something honestly, “We’re practicing magic,”

“Is ‘practicing magic’ the new euphemism for anal?”

Harry nearly choked on air.

“Niall, mate, what the fuck,” Zayn sighed, and Niall just flicked his eyes up to Harry and then to Zayn before ultimately returning to look at his screen.

“Is Louis really teaching you magic?” Liam interrupted, his voice a bit too high. When Harry looked at him, Liam was blushing, even though he wasn’t even the one at the center of the conversation.

“Yeah, he is,” Harry said, and Liam nodded.

“That’s nice of him,” he said, “I guess it’s nice to have another Elemental around, right?”

“Um,” Harry said, “Yeah,”

He looked at Niall again, who was looking a bit too hard at his screen, and Harry sighed.

“Look, please just don’t tell him, okay? I’ll be the one to do it. Eventually,”

“Hey, mate, your secret’s safe with me,” Niall shrugged, and then right back to pressing buttons on his game.

Harry kept his eyes focused on his hands in his lap, trying to make the blush on his cheeks go away.

“Mornin’,” a voice yawned behind them, and Harry turned around and saw Louis wandering into the kitchen, in Harry’s t-shirt and a tight pair of pale grey boxers. He came right over to Harry, crossing his arms on the back of his chair before leaning forward and burying his entire face in Harry’s curls.

“It’s one the afternoon, Lou,” Zayn offered, and Louis scoffed.

“Whatever. It’s morning to me,” Louis said, and then his arms dropped from the back of the chair and instead wrapped them around Harry’s chest, “This one wore me out this morning,”

“I’m sorry,” Harry immediately said, and tried to speak loudly enough to drown out Niall’s snort.

“Heard you two were doing some magic,” Niall said.

“Yeah. We’re working on the right rhythm,” Louis said, his face finally emerging from Harry’s hair. He still kept his chin on the top of Harry’s head.

“Mm, bet you are,” Niall said, and Harry immediately spoke up.

“Liam said maybe we could ask for a car to bring us into town so we can do some shopping,” he said, “Since it’s our day off,”

“I said that?” Liam said, and out of the corner of his eye Harry saw Zayn jab Liam’s side with his elbow, “I mean, yes! I did! Let’s go to town,”

“Uh, yeah,” Louis said slowly, “Alright, let’s do it,”

He pulled away from Harry entirely, but still reached down to tap the back of Harry’s hand with a finger before going back into the kitchen.

“I’ll get you a spoon for your yogurt, love,” he said, and Harry started a bit.

“Oh,” he said, “Thanks, I must’ve forgotten it,”

He avoided the boys’ eyes as he waited for Louis to come back.

*******

“How do your hands feel?” Louis asked.

Harry just blinked, staring down at his own hands. They were stretched out in front of him, his fingers spread wide. He kept flipping them over, staring at the lines of his palms, his knuckles, his cuticles. He tried to find any sort of sensation in them, but there was nothing. His magic, as per usual, had gone totally dormant one of the few things he actually wanted it to turn up.

“Like nothing,” he said, and Louis sighed.

“They can’t feel like nothing. Even if you can’t feel magic, just feel me how they feel,”

“They feel like hands,” Harry groaned, “And they’re cold,”

“Alright,” Louis said, and then came over and touched the back of his hand, “That’s good enough. We can take a break,”

“I haven’t done anything,” Harry huffed. It was their fifth time going this, and every time Louis tried to get him to do something, to get in touch with his magic or to focus his energy, and every time he couldn’t do it and Louis just told him to take a break.

“It’s fine,” Louis said. He also always told Harry that it was fine.

“It’s not,” Harry said, but still sat down on the grass and crossed his legs, his official ‘taking a break’ position.

“We’ll try again tomorrow,” Louis insisted as he went to join Harry on the grass.

“Our performance is tomorrow,”

“Oh shit, right. Then the day after tomorrow,”

“If we’re even still here,”

“Oh, don’t even start. Of course we’ll still be here. And I’ll give you another lesson then,” Louis said. He leaned forward, then, smiling, “Now can I practice?”

Harry looked up at him and then leaned forward, shaking his head as he did so.

“I don’t know why you do this if I haven’t done anything,”

“I told you. Practice,” Louis said, and then leaned forward and pressed his mouth firmly to Harry’s. He kept his lips closed this time instead of opening his mouth a bit like he usually did, and Harry pulled back and frowned.

“You can, um,” he said, “Open your mouth more if you want. I kind of like it,”

“Okay,” Louis said, and then moved in again and pressed his mouth to Harry’s once again. This time he relaxed his mouth and left it open a time, and Harry opened his mouth a bit to mirror. The touch was gentler this way, and they could both move, and then they moved away Harry smiled.

“Good?” Louis asked, and Harry nodded.

“It’s always good,” he insisted, “But, yeah, that was really good,”

“Great. I should do it again, just to make sure I have it down,”

Harry laughed weakly, but still leaned forward and their lips touched again, open and relaxed.

And then Harry heard yelling.

“Aha,” Niall’s voice shouted, “Caught you, motherfuckers!”

Harry pulled back quickly and blinked, then turned back towards the house. Niall was standing on the back stairs, Liam and Zayn lingering behind him. Niall was grinning with his arms crossed, and Louis sighed.

“Niall, what the fresh fuck are you doing?” Louis called.

“Winning my bet money,” Niall said, “Have you two fucked yet? I get extra if you’ve fucked,”

“No, Niall, Jesus Christ,” Louis said, the same time Harry called out, “A bet?”

“Yeah, we all had a bet on when you two would get together. I mean, clearly, that’s basically free money. And second base, at least? What is that for two guys, just touching a nipple?”

“Niall,” Louis muttered.

“Louis touched my third nipple by accident when we were swimming in Spain,” Harry blurted.

“Christ, Harry,” Louis grumbled, “Also, you really should’ve put together by now that me fondling your abs wasn’t an accident,”

“Well, either way, I win,” Niall grinned, turning to look behind him, “Or, actually, Zayn and I win because our guesses were pretty close together,”

“Both of you?” Louis squawked.

“I’m sorry. Harry kind of admitted to us,” Zayn called, and Louis huffed.

“Damn it. I’m in a band of traitors. Except Liam. God, I can’t believe I like Liam best in this scenario,”

“I didn’t want to participate because I thought it was wrong to continue the idea that just because we have two gay friends they would date each other,” Liam offered.

“You’re a true ally, Liam Payne,” Louis said, and then his eyes widened, “Wait, wait, back up, did I just hear you call us your friends?”

“Oh,” Liam said, “I mean, that’s just what – oh, fuck, I – “

“No, be quiet, Liam. I’m your friend. We’re all your friends. No take backs,” Louis laid back onto the grass, then, and rolled over onto his stomach.

“Now can all of you traitors leave us alone?”

“Sure,” Niall said, and then glanced over his shoulder, “Okay, everyone, continue as you were!”

“What the fuck,” Louis popped back up and looked over, shaking his head when he saw a cluster of contestants pressed across the sliding glass doors, smiling and waving at them.

“You’re all fucking liars and thieves!” Louis shouted.

Harry started laughing so hard that the grass under his left hand caught fire. He shrieked and yanked his hand away, getting to his feet and cradling his hand to his chest as he skipped away. Louis sighed and extinguished it with a gust of breeze before laying back onto the ground, his arms stretched out on either side.

 “Well,” Niall said, giggling his fingers at them, “See you twinks in a bit!”

“You can’t say that if you’re straight!” Louis shouted.

“Don’t assume my sexuality!” Niall returned, and then backed towards the sliding doors at the back of the house, “Later, fuckers!”

He went back into the house then, and Liam and Zayn laughed and tripped after him. The crowd of remaining contestants stayed pressed to the doors for a second or two longer, but then they dispersed into the rest of the house, too.

Harry just stared and watched them go, his mouth hanging open a bit, and then he glanced over at Louis he was doing the same.

“Did Niall just admit to us he’s gay?” Louis managed, and Harry shrugged.

“Or bi, maybe,”

“Or just Niall,”

“Right,” Harry nodded, and Louis sighed.

“Can we keep snogging now?”

“I mean, I don’t feel like doing more magic,” Harry admitted.

Louis just grinned and then sat up and leaned in for another kiss.

*******

“Louis,” Harry whispered, “Louis, stop,”

He was laughing as he said it, because Louis had one hand curled against his belly, his fingers tickling his skin, and Louis’s mouth was at the base of Harry’s neck, not even touching him but instead just blowing air onto the thin skin there.

“We have to get up early,” Harry said, but Louis just shook his head, the movement of his head and hair shifting in the dark.

“That’s alright,” he murmured, and then he brought his slick and swollen mouth down to Harry’s lips. They had been doing this for a little while now, snogging while crushed together in Louis’s bunk.

Harry pushed up against his chest, splaying his fingers over Louis’s skin that was warmed from the thick blanket and the pure lack of air conditioning in the house.

“Seriously, _stop_ ,” he laughed, but Louis only leaned in again, briefly pecking his lips and then moving down to to kiss at the sensitive side of Harry’s neck. He giggled weakly and kicked his legs a bit, pressing harder to Louis’s chest. He breathed in to speak, to tell him once again to stop, something which he didn’t mean and which Louis wouldn’t listen to. And then they were interrupted.

“Can you two shut the fuck up?”

Louis lifted his head at Niall’s voice, yawning against the back of his hand before letting it drop back down.

“No,” he said flatly, and Niall scoffed from across the room. 

“You realize you two keep yawning in between every five seconds, right? Like, how much fun can it be?”

“Lots of fucking fun,” Louis snapped.

“Then have fun somewhere else,” Niall huffed, and then a pillow was being weakly hefted at them. Louis watched as it barely hit the side of the bunk and then turned and glared in the general direction of Niall and Liam’s bunk.

“This is homophobia,”

“It’s really, really not,” Niall said, and then sighed loudly, “Can anyone back me up?”

“I’m trying to sleep,” Liam whined weakly, and when Harry looked he could see Liam had a pillow clamped tightly around his ears.

“Yeah, I know Liam, that’s why I’m advocating for you,” Niall said.

“Well, Zayn votes on your side, you’ll have a majority and we’ll stop,” Louis said.

“Zayn can sleep through an apocalypse,” Niall said, “He is not included in this vote,”

“I am trying to sleep!” Liam nearly screeched again, and Niall just groaned, his body flopping weakly onto the mattress.

“Look, when enough people get eliminated and the house empties out, you two need to get your own room,” Niall said flatly.

“Cool, can you leave us the fuck alone until then?” Louis asked. Niall apparently had no more pillows to throw, because he just groaned loudly and then turned over to face the opposite wall.

Louis turned back to Harry, and then set both his hands on his cheeks. Harry blinked up at him, only catching the gleam of Louis’s eyes in the dark.

“We really should sleep,” he whispered, and Louis just shrugged.

“I mean, yeah,” Louis asked, “But I need a good night kiss first,”

“How many do you bloody need?” Harry laughed weakly, and Louis pushed his mouth forward, catching Harry’s laughter against his own mouth.

“Let’s find out and see,” he said when he pulled away.

*******

News tended to spread quickly in the contestant house, just because there weren’t very many people there and also because the people that were there desperately needed to focus on something that wasn’t rehearsals or interviews or the constant fear of elimination. But even when it became well known to just about everyone that Louis and Harry doing… _something_ together, the house talked about them for about two days before things settled back down, and everyone went back to being nervous about performances and rehearsals as usual.

The rest of the boys would probably never stop teasing them about it, but even they soon decided that focusing on rehearsals would probably be a better use of their time. Even Louis was starting to focus now that the pool of contestants had dwindled down; they still had dinners and parties and fun in the house but now it felt more like a competition and less like very intense, expensive summer camp.

But of course, eventually that focus had to be derailed somehow, and this time it came in the form of Liam wandering into their shared room one night right before bedtime, far later than usual.

“Hey, mate,” Niall called to him when he walked in. Harry lifted his head from where he was playing cards with Zayn on the floor, and saw that Liam was standing frozen in the doorway, his hands clutched to his chest and a look of pure horror on his face.

“What’s going on there, Li?” Zayn asked, laughing a bit, but Liam’s expression didn’t lighten, instead his eyes just widened even more and his gaze flitted around the room, snapping to each of them individually.

“I found a dragon,” he said in a rush.

Louis frowned, finally setting down his phone.

“What the fuck do you mean you found a dragon?” he asked, and Liam somehow flushed even harder.

“I, um, well,” Liam got out, “It was just lying in the garden, and its wing was hurt, so I brought it back to see if Niall could fix it up, but then, well, it got attached,”

“Oh, Christ,” Niall sighed, “Why is this my business? I just fix boo boos. On humans, I should add,”

“Liam, where’s your dragon?” Zayn interrupted, looking at Liam evenly and patiently.

Which was the exact moment a tiny, scaly head poked out of Liam’s clasped hands.

“What the fuck,” Louis said flatly, and then Liam was opening his hands more and the dragon crawled out more fully, twirling around Liam’s fingers before settling cozily into his palms and closing its eyes. They all got up to move towards Liam, and Harry tried to get a decent look at the thing. It was jade green with brown speckles, and the size of a large lizard, with stubby wings like a bat’s.

“Well, he’s cute,” Harry said eventually.

“Her,” Liam corrected, “Only the females have brown spots. And if it were a male, it would be brighter,”

“Well, I for one support the dragon in whatever she wants to be,” Louis said.

“But is it against the rules to have a dragon in the house?” Zayn asked, “They already told us a lot of house rules but I don’t remember,”

“I’m guessing this has never happened before,” Louis shrugged, “And I mean, we could just…not tell anyone,”

“Fuck yeah, secret band dragon,” Niall said, “We should name it One Dragon. One Dragon-tion. That’s funny, right?”

“Niall, be quiet,” Louis huffed, “Okay, we have a dragon. That’s cool,”

“I don’t know what to do, though!” Liam cried, and Louis just cut his eyes forwards him.

“Liam, calm down, we made the decision to keep her, so we’re going to do that. Now go Google how to keep a pet dragon and what they eat and shit. And ask someone for some first aid supplies to get that wing in shape,” Louis said, “Tomorrow, you and maybe Niall can make sure she’s doing alright, and the rest of us will practice,”

“But I have a big part, and Niall – “

“We’ll alternate doing those parts. And then when you figure out your dragon stuff, you can come back in,”

Liam just blinked at Louis, and then groaned, cupping his hands and pushing the dragon closer to his chest.

“We’re going to lose,” he moaned.

“No, Liam, we’re not, go take care of your dragon,” Louis snapped, “Niall, go help him,”

“I already said I don’t do dragons,”

“Then you have a great learning opportunity on your hands,” Louis said, and then just stared at Niall until he rolled his eyes and then left with Liam back down the hall.

Zayn watched them leave, and then turned towards Harry.

“Your boyfriend is terrifying sometimes; you know that?”

“Don’t talk to me through Harry,” Louis said, “What are you two even playing? Deal me in,”

He went to sit on the floor with the cards, and Zayn joined him soon after.

It took Harry awhile to move. He was busy trying to figure out if it had been a mistake that Louis hadn’t corrected Zayn for saying “boyfriend.”

*******

By the end of the week Liam had named the dragon Penelope and she had taken to living in a large birdcage that Liam had bought in town. Liam fed her lettuce and dead crickets every day and had made a little splint and bandage for her wing.

And they were still in the competition.

***********

“I don’t want to practice anymore,” Harry sighed, scuffing the toe of his trainer into the dirt.

It was the evening, and it was getting cold. They had an hour to themselves after filming their newest interviews and online segments and before dinner. Almost everyone else was in one of the main rooms, watching a movie or playing a game, but Harry was standing in the garden with several packages of convenience store fireworks in front of him. He had no idea how Louis had gotten them, but they were there, and all of the sparklers were unlit even though they barely needed any firepower to start up.

“Just a few more minutes,” Louis offered. He was sitting on the grass on the other side of the garden, his legs crossed, and he looking up at Harry patiently, expectedly.

“I’m tired, Louis,” Harry sighed, “It’s been a long week,”

“I know, we’ve all had the week. But I’d really like it if you could a couple more rounds, okay?”

“Doing what?” he huffed, and then sat down on the grass, “None of this is doing any good,”

Harry glanced across the garden. The rest of the boys, for whatever reason, had decided to join them. Well, kind of. They weren’t watching or even really talking to them. Liam had Penelope wrapped around his arm and was feeding her pieces of carrot, Zayn was drawing in his sketchbook, and Niall had his DS somewhere and was playing Pokémon Diamond. But they were still there.

Harry shook his head, turning back to Louis, “Look, we don’t have to do this. I’m not getting any better. Whenever this ends…I’m just going to go get proper lessons like I was supposed to. Let’s enjoy this while we can,”

Louis just blinked at him and tilted his head, making his hair fall into his eyes.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, like,” Harry swallowed and shrugged, “In case, well…in case we get cut and the show just ends and nothing else comes out of it. I’ll go back to school and get lessons then. And yeah. We shouldn’t worry about this while we’re still on the show,”

Louis was quiet, and Harry just looked down and stared at the point of one sparkler, hoping that maybe he could work up one frail spark, but nothing came.

“Harry Styles,” Louis sighed, and then Harry looked up, because Louis had crawled straight over to him, keeping his face parallel to his own, “Remember all we’ve talked about? This isn’t going to end, as far as I’m concerned. We’re going to keep doing this, and maybe people will keep liking us, and we’ll keep working and trying to stay in this band. So maybe it won’t stop and you won’t get your formal lessons. You’ll just get us doing our best. So you need to try,”

“That’s not…plausible,”

“Ooh, that’s a fancy word. But yes, it is. So try one more time,”

Harry ducked his head and then brought his knees to his chest, inhaling through his nose in something that sounded like a very weak, ugly sniffle.

“But I _can’t_ Louis, please,” he closed his eyes, shaking his head even harder. He tried to keep his voice down, and he hoped that none of the others had bothered to look up because he was on the ground with a bunch of unlit sparklers in front of him and Louis was literally right in front of him and he felt like he was going to cry.

He inhaled again and sniffled even harder and yeah, maybe he was going to cry.

“Oh, no,” Louis whispered, “No, no, none of that. What is it?”

“I can’t do it!” Harry spit out, and then recoiled, trying to curl in on himself, “I can’t do anything at all unless it’s an accident, and everyone else can at least do something, and it’s sad, and you’re trying so hard and I still can’t do it and you’re going to get sick of having to do this – “

“Harry, Harry,” Louis said gently, grabbing both of his wrists and squeezing, “Come on, that’s not true,”

“Which part?”

“Well, maybe you can’t do much yet. But lots of people can’t, Harry. Including Elementals. Including fire mages. Including everyone,” Louis said, “So you’re not sad, or pathetic, and I’m not going to get sick of getting to hang out with you. But I am going to get sick of seeing you sad, because I never like getting to see that,”

Harry blinked at him, resisted the urge to make Louis let go of his wrists so he could curl in on himself and wrap his arms around his legs like he really wanted to.

He still didn’t know if Louis was telling the truth. He still had no idea if they were boyfriends or not.

“Here, love. Can I get a kiss?” Louis asked. In spite of himself, Harry leaned forward a bit and let Louis do it, and then he leaned back and squeezed his eyes shut.

“I’m going to call Liam over,” Louis said, and that made Harry open his eyes.

“Why?”

“Because I’m still trying to make sure Liam knows I don’t hate him,” Louis said, and then lifted a hand, waving across the garden to the others, “Liam! Come over, bring Penelope,”

Liam lifted his head, and then he got to his feet and jogged over to them, smiling as he held Penelope close to his chest.

“Can Harry see her for a minute?” Louis asked, and Liam immediately nodded and lifted the dragon away from his chest and instead extended his arms out a bit.

“Sure. Actually, here, you can hold her. She’s very sweet, she doesn’t even have any sharp teeth because all she eats are vegetables and crickets,”

“Oh, alright,” Harry said. He held out his hands and let the dragon crawl into his palms, watching her every move as she did.

“Hi,” he murmured, and Penelope lifted her head, making a soft little squawk, and then lifted herself onto her back legs and nudged Harry’s nose with her snout. He laughed and ducked his head even more, letting her rub his cheek.

“She likes you,” Liam said.

“Of course she does. Everybody likes Harry,” Louis said, “And I heard dragons like fire mages the best,”

“Well, I mean, she’s not a fire breathing species so I don’t – “

“Liam, shh,” Louis said, and then leaned over and stroked over finger over Penelope’s head and then over her back, and she made a noise close to a purring cat. Harry laughed and then Louis kept stroking, making her do it again.

“Zayn’s working on a sketch of her right now, actually,” Liam said as he watched Harry hold Penelope, “You know he can put magic in his drawings and make them move? It’s sick,”

“That does sound cool,” Louis said, but Harry could tell his voice was distracted, and when he looked away from the dragon, he saw Louis was looking him.

Penelope keened a bit, wriggling around in Harry fingers, and Liam moved forward.

“Um, can I have her back? I think she’s nervous,”

“Of course,” Harry said, and then held out his arms so Penelope could crawl into Liam’s waiting hands, “Go see your dad, Penelope,”

Liam grinned and clasped his hands close to his chest again, letting the dragon snuggle against him.

“Are we going in soon?” Liam asked, and Louis just shrugged.

“Maybe. Harry wanted to practice a bit more,”

He looked over at Harry as he said it, and lifted his brows.

“Didn’t you Harry?”

“Oh,” Harry said, and then looked down at his hands, bristling with unused magic, “I guess so, yeah,”

Louis smiled, and Liam just shrugged and walked away. As soon as he was gone, Louis grabbed Harry’s shoulders and pulled him in, their lips touching quickly. When they pulled back, Louis crushed him into a hug, keeping his mouth right by Harry’s ear as he held him.  

“Things are going to happen for you soon,” Louis whispered, “I can feel it,”

*******

Harry is on an actual red carpet.

Well, he _was_. Now they’re behind some stage area with a bunch of other invited guests, milling around and trying to find something to do. But still, he, and the rest of the boys, obviously, were on a red carpet, with people shouting their names and taking pictures. Granted, someone else probably had to tell the photographers who they were, and they were hardly important since this was the second to final Harry Potter premiere ever and they were hardly anybody.

But it had happened, and he and everyone else around him were still buzzing with giddy energy.

“I can’t believe we met Emma Watson,” Niall was saying, over and over, and Louis laughed.

“I know. She’s lovely,” he said, not for the first time that night, “I really should have thanked her for being my go-to answer whenever someone asked who my celebrity crush was growing up,”

“Really?” Harry asked, “I said always it was her, too,”

Louis looked over at him, his carefully combed hair falling a bit into his eyes, and he smiled.

“Of course you did,” Louis said, “She’s a great go-to straight crush,”

“But I always fancied her, too,” Liam said, and Louis rolled his eyes.

“And what does that say about your sexuality, Liam?”

“Well, I mean, I always liked Megan Fox, too,” he said quickly, and Louis laughed.

“I had a friend in school who liked Megan Fox. She’s a lesbian,”

“Louis, you’re traumatizing him,” Niall sighed, “Come on, let’s see if they have snacks. I’m starving,”

“Is that all you care about?” Louis called after him, but Niall just laughed and then he was on his way towards another part of the party, with Liam and Zayn following after him.

“Well, I guess we can follow them,” Louis laughed.

Harry nodded but still reached out and grabbed Louis’s wrist, pulling him back.  

“Hey, can I talk to you?” he asked, and Louis just looked back at him with wide eyes and raised eyebrows.

“Yeah, what’s going on?” he asked, and Harry swallowed, willing the words he knew he needed to say to come out.

“So, like, um – what I was just – “ he stumbled, and then reached up and scratched the back of his head, “Do you know what we are?”

Louis blinked at him and tilted his head, “Gay. We’re gay,”

“I mean,” Harry said, laughing weakly before steadying his voice again, “What are we together?”

“Double gay,”

“Damn it, Louis,” Harry said, even though he still desperately wanted to laugh, “I mean are we dating?”

Louis lifted a brow, frowning a bit, and Harry’s heart dropped a bit.

Fuck, he’d ruined it. He’d ruined it right here on the _Harry Potter_ red carpet.

But then Louis smiled, even though his eyebrows were still scrunched together a bit.

“What else would we be?”

Harry opened his his mouth, about to say something, but he couldn’t. His palm itched with heat and magic. Something bad was going to happen.

But before he could yank his hand away, Louis closed his hand over Harry’s palm, squeezing, and Harry felt a cooling magic flow over his skin. He felt his own unwanted power receding, settling like a wind extinguishing a fire forest before it could start.

Louis looked at him steadily, and then smiled.

“I really like you,” he said, “I actually kind of think I want to marry you,”

Harry blushed and shook his head, remembering an earlier day in the week, when they had been sitting on the stairs with a camera in their face and he had thought his heart was going to stop when Louis said the same thing then, even if it was a joke.

“Because it rhymes,” Harry said weakly, but Louis shook his head.

“Maybe a few other reasons,”

“You haven’t known me very long,” Harry whispered. He felt like he was floating. He felt magic pressing against his skin, but it was warm and soft like candlelight, and Louis’s hands were still clasping his own, keeping anything from igniting fully.

“Yeah, well,” Louis shrugged, “I’ve known you long enough to know I’d like you to be my boyfriend,”

Harry blinked, his palm feeling slippery under Louis’s hand.

“It’s not fair,” Harry whispered, “It’s not fair you can’t kiss me here,”

“You’re wrong,” Louis said, and then leaned close, his lips ghosting over Harry’s so he could feel every word vibrate against his lips right before Louis kissed him fully, “I would kiss you anywhere the stars can see,”

***********

The next several weeks became a blur of early nights and earlier mornings, cups of hot water for sore throats and aching feet from dance rehearsals. Surviving eliminations slowly started to feel more and more extraordinary as the house filtered out, becoming so empty that nearly any sound seemed to echo off the walls. There were plenty of empty rooms, to the point everyone in the group could all have their own space, or at the very least Harry and Louis could have their own room together like Niall had seemed to want a few weeks ago. But they all stayed in their crowded, nearly destroyed room, and Louis and Harry just kept sharing bunks. Harry’s magic lessons got put on pause while they were practicing constantly, but luckily Louis always seemed nearby to offer a hand or soft smile that would quietly settle Harry and his magic right back down.

And then suddenly they were in the top four, and they were all in a van heading off to Holmes Chapel for another round of homecoming footage.

“I’m nervous about Penelope,” Liam groaned from the back of the van, and Zayn’s voice quickly came in, soft and comforting.

“She’ll be okay. Stephanie from the production crew is taking care of her and she’s an animal speaker too, remember?”

“But what if someone else finds her and takes her away?” Liam asked.

“We have her number, we can call her and make sure nothing’s happened,” Zayn offered.

“Yeah, but – “

Liam kept talking, and Zayn’s voice answered him in turn, hushed and quick to repair any of Liam’s worries. Niall was sleeping on one side of Harry in the middle row in the van, his head against the window and his snores soft and constant. Louis was holding Harry’s hand, their joined hands pressed into Louis’s lap, and the other boy would squeeze Harry’s fingers anytime he wanted his attention.

“Do you think Liam and Zayn would be cute together?” he whispered right up against Harry’s ear, and he shrugged.

“Liam’s straight. I think Zayn is, too,”

“Yeah, well, people change,” Louis said, and then looked off, “I think they’d be cute together, anyways,”

“Yeah,” Harry allowed, “Maybe,”

Louis nodded, and then reached over to pat the top of Harry’s hand.

“Do you still, um,” he said, and then licked his lips before going on, “Want to tell your mum? And your stepdad? About us, I mean,”

“Oh,” Harry said, and then swallowed. He’d brought it up when they had been in Doncaster and Louis had told him about two seconds before filming began that he had actually called his mum and told her everything about the two of them the first night they had kissed. Harry had been mad for maybe two seconds, and then he actually met Louis’s mum and realized exactly how close they were, and how sweet she was, and then he was perfectly at ease again.

But then, of course, he had decided he wanted to tell his family, too.

“Yeah, I still do,” Harry said, and Louis nodded.

“So how do you want to tell them?”

“I don’t know,” Harry admitted, “I haven’t thought that far yet,”

“Well,” Louis said, “We have time,”

“We have fifteen minutes left in the drive,”

“Yeah. That’s time,”

Harry sighed and shook his head, and Louis stroked his fingers over the back of his hand.

“Um,” Louis said, making Harry look up, “Are your mum and stepdad traditional?”

“Huh?” Harry asked, and Louis stopped stroking his hand and looked up.

“Like,” he said, “will they care that I’m not a fire mage?”

“Oh,” Harry said, “No, not at all,”

“Okay, great,”

“Why? Did you think we’d have to break up if they didn’t like you?”

“No,” Louis said quickly, and then smiled softly, “I just would’ve had to think of a way to get around them,”

Harry snorted and looked away.

“You’re lame,”

“You still like it,”

“I can still hear you two,” Niall snapped, apparently no longer asleep. Louis rolled his eyes.

“Cover your ears, then,” Louis said, and then leaned into Harry’s shoulder and bit at the fabric of his jumper.

They passed the welcome sign to Holmes Chapel.

Harry wouldn’t have much time to think soon.

*******

They had each gotten a little time to actually visit with their families before the actual cameras came in, so the producers just left all of them alone once they delivered the band to Harry’s neighborhood, reminding them that they would be back in a few hours. The rest of the boys were content to hang out with the production crew, but Harry didn’t even tell Louis to wait, he just grabbed him by the hand and went straight to the front door of his house.

He didn’t even get the chance to knock before the door was swinging open. His mum was standing in the doorway, smiling widely, and she didn’t even hesitate as she went to give Harry a hug, and then squeezed Louis immediately afterwards.

“Hi, love,” Anne smiled once she pulled away, “You brought Louis along, I see,”

“Yeah,” Harry said, “I, um, I hope that’s okay,”

“Of course,” she said, “Why don’t you two come in, I just finished making some lunch but there should be plenty. Robin got held up at work but he’ll be home as soon as he can to see you,

“Okay,” Harry nodded, and Louis turned and smiled at him, stroking Harry’s wrist quickly before they both went inside.

Anne had set up some sandwiches and tea at the kitchen table, but Harry didn’t even reach for the food, instead just grabbed a mug of tea and gulped down nearly half of it in one go. Louis gave him a look as he reached for a plate and a sandwich, but Harry couldn’t even give him a look back, because Anne was turning around and smiling at the two of them.

“So – “ she said, but Harry pulled his mug away from his mouth and spoke before she could even say anything.

“Louis and I are dating,” he burst out.

He blinked, looking between his mum and then Louis and then back again. They both were just looking at him, their faces unreadable, and eventually Louis sighed and set his plate down on the counter.

“Well that’s one way to tell her,” he said, and Harry swallowed.

“I’m sorry,” he said, and then turned to his mum, “Um, yeah, sorry,”

“Oh, love,” Anne sighed, and then came around the counter and went to hug Harry, “There’s no need to be sorry,”

“I probably could’ve said it better than that,” he moaned, and she just laughed and pulled back.

“That doesn’t really matter,” she said, and then quickly went over to Louis and wrapped her arms around him tightly, “I’m just glad you told me,”

Louis’s eyes widened, and then he looked over Anne’s shoulder and caught Harry’s eyes, a smile creeping over his mouth as he did so. Harry smiled back, and then Anne was pulling away and looking between the two of them.

“Let’s go into the living room,” she said, “You two probably have a lot to say,”

So Harry picked up his mug and Louis got his plate and they went to the other room. Harry stumbled through telling his mum about what they’d be doing and how he and Louis had been hanging out and how Louis had been trying to help him with his magic and Anne smiled through all of it. And then Robin got home and Harry had to go through all of it all over again, and then a producer was knocking on the house’s front door to let Harry and Louis that visiting time was up and they needed to get back to set.

Anne and Robin hugged each of them in turn, and Anne pulled Harry back just long enough to tell him that she was happy for him, and then she kissed his cheek and he had to go prepare to be filmed.

An hour later, the cameras came to the house, and they did a staged bit in the kitchen, where someone had hung up a welcome home banner. The rest of the boys were there, and Robin gave a speech about how happy he was that everything had worked out and how all the boys were family, which was kind of lie since it wasn’t not like Harry’s parents and the rest of the boys had seen each other since that initial time in the bungalow months ago.

But Robin looked right at Louis as he said it, and Louis’s eyes cut to Harry and he smiled, and yeah, maybe Harry could believe this was what his family looked like now.

*******

They got back from the last of homecoming filming late, but that didn’t stop Louis from shaking Harry awake only a few hours after they had gone to bed.

“Louis,” Harry croaked, “What are you doing?”

“Let’s go outside,” Louis whispered. He had already slid out of their shared bunk, and he was searching the crowded floor for clothes.

“I don’t wanna do magic,” Harry said, and Louis glanced over his shoulder at him before picking a shirt off the floor.

“You don’t have to. Just come on,”

Harry groaned and threw his blanket over his head, but Louis just laughed and ripped it away before nearly pushing Harry out of bed. Harry found clothes, his coat and some boots abandoned in the corner, and he put them on and then followed Louis out of the room, down the stairs, and out into the back garden.

The sky was freshly broken with a pink and orange sunrise, and they sat side by side in the grass, Louis stroking the inside of Harry’s elbow as they watched the color seep and bleed into the ashy dawn grey.

“You know it’s cold, right?” Harry asked. Louis was leaning against him, wearing a thin hoodie and a pair of shorts and no shoes, his toes turning pink as he leaned up against him.

“It’s not my fault. I didn’t pack for the winter,”

“You’re the one who kept saying we were going to stay here for a long time,”

“Well. Maybe I forgot how long this show ran, I don’t know,” Louis said, and then curled up further, folding up his knees until they were nearly in Harry’s lap. Harry reached over and rubbed Louis’s knee and the other boy hummed, closing his eyes and smiling.

“Or maybe I just wanted you to hold me,” Louis said.

“That’s not true,”

“It’s half of the truth,” Louis shrugged, and then set his temple back on Harry’s shoulder.

“I can go get a blanket, you know,” Harry said.

“And you can also stay put and keep me warm with your own body heat, Harold, don’t fight me on this,”

Harry smiled, and then tightened his hold on Louis’s knee.

“Could I kiss you, maybe?”

Louis smiled lazily, blinking up at him.

“You can kiss me anytime you’d like. Except, you know, on stage,”

“Right,” Harry swallowed and then leaned forward, kissing Louis on the forehead and then quickly pulling back. Louis just snorted and bumped his shoulder hard.

“That was a lame ass kiss,”

“It was still a kiss!”

“Well, give me another one. On the lips,” Louis said, tilting his head up, “I know my lips are chapped, but – “

Harry surged forward, though, and pressed his mouth to Louis’s so quickly he didn’t even have time to close his mouth. About half of it was actually their lips touching, the rest was Louis’s tongue crushing up against Harry’s tightly sealed mouth, and their teeth clicking together in a way that made Harry’s stomach roll and pull back.

“Oh, God,” he rushed out, and Louis was laughing holding a hand up to his mouth.

“Fuck, okay. That was bad. Not that you’re bad! Just one bad kiss. Here. Come back,” Louis said, moving back forward and grabbing the back of Harry’s neck, “Come on, stop. Stop laughing! Oh God, fuck. Okay. I’m going in, just relax,”

Louis moved back in, sealing their lips back together. Harry hummed against his mouth but let him, and this time it was all lips and softness and when he pulled away, Harry smiled.

“Wait,” Harry said, shaking his head a bit to clear his thoughts, “I just remembered…can’t you technically make yourself warm? Like heat up the air around you?”

“Oh,” Louis said, and then smiled, “Yes, I technically can,”

“So this was all an attempt to just hold onto me,”

“Maybe,” Louis admitted, “Because I can also do this,”

Louis turned around and held up his hands, and Harry turned around to watch. A few seconds later, Harry could see through the glass of the back door that inside of the living room, there was a blanket floating through the air. Then the sliding glass door opened on its own with a small twist of Louis’s wrist. The blanket floated through the air across the garden, and then finally wrapped itself around both of their shoulders and went still.

Harry blinked and then sighed.

“Why couldn’t I just be an air mage? Everything’s useful and you can’t destroy anything,”

“We can make tornados,” Louis offered.

“Right. That’s a point,” Harry said, “But did _you_ ever make a tornado?”

“No, Harry. And you’ve never made a forest fire. It’s fine. You’re fine. And you’re not going to ruin our sunrise date with magic talk,”

“Is this a date?”

“Well, it’s past sunrise by now, I guess. But yes, it is a date,”

Harry smiled, and then he stuck his tongue out to lick at his own bottom lip.

“What do you want to do after this is over?” Harry asked carefully. Louis looked at him, and he raised an eyebrow.

“What do you mean?”

“Just…what are you going to do when this show is over?”  

He didn’t ask about the band or about what was going to happen to them. He didn’t know if he could handle an answer to those questions yet.

“Hm,” Louis hummed, and tilted his head, “I’d quite like to buy a house,”

“Really?”

“Yeah. A big house,” Louis said, and then reached out his hand and grabbed Harry’s, “Maybe one where I could live with you,”

“Me?”

“Yeah, you,”

Harry swallowed and then looked away, forcing himself to stare at the frost-bitten grass as he spoke.

“I’d like that too, I think,”

Louis didn’t answer, instead just squeezed Harry’s hand and tilted his chin up to the sky.

 His fingers were freezing but Harry didn’t even care.

*******

There were barely any people left to perform, but the night of the final three’s competition was the loudest and busiest night yet.

Everyone backstage was racing back and forth; producers were reminding Matt and Rebecca and Harry and the rest of the boys when and where they were needed, makeup and fashion artists were checking up on their outfits and foundation, and a few assistants were going around offering water and well wishes.

Harry had his fabric bracelet on and tucked under his jacket sleeve, and he was doing his best to breath in and out and stay calm. Luckily, so was everyone else, so if they noticed how nervous he looked they didn’t have time to dwell on it.

Well, everyone was trying to stay calm except Louis.

“You all need to chill,” Louis said. Liam’s head snapped up and he glared at him, sighing shakily.

“This is a big deal,”

“Yeah, every week’s been a big deal,” Louis said, crossing his arms, “No need to lose your minds over this one just because we’re a bit further up the ladder,”

“But – “

“Liam, hush,” Louis sighed, and then looked between all of them, “I have a thought,”

“Of course you do,” Niall said, and Louis rolled his eyes.

“Huddle up, you fuckers,” he said, and when no one made a move he grabbed Harry around his shoulders and tucked him against his side, “Fine, just Harry and I will huddle then, if that’s how you want it to be,”

“You two do shit like this all the time anyways,” Niall said.

“Well then you should huddle up so we don’t have to be alone,” Louis said. Niall shook his head and then came over and threw an arm around Harry’s shoulders. Zayn looked at the three of them and then put an arm around Louis, and finally Liam sighed and shuffled forward to put his arms around Zayn and Niall.

“Okay,” he said, “Everyone’s going to be calm tonight, and everyone’s going to have fun. You know why?”

“Oh, boy, tell us why, Louis,” Niall said, and Louis shot him a look but went on.

“Because we’re going to the top two,” he said, “I can feel it in the air. And you all know about me and the air, we’re pretty good pals,”

Zayn laughed weakly and then looked up, shaking his head at Niall who was just glaring evenly at him.

“That was a good one, you have to admit,” Zayn said, “Sorry, continue,”

“Anyways,” Louis said, “We’re going to the top two. And then, from there, the top one. But there’s no top one, you say. Well yes, there fucking is. It’s called winning, and that’s what we’re going to do,”

The rest of them stared at him, and Harry kind of wanted to kiss him, but he could always do that later.

“So, you all going to calm down and trust me?” Louis said, and Liam shook his head.

“I just – “

“Liam,” Louis said, “Repeat after me. We are going to win,”

“I – “

“Liam! Tell me we are going to win before I kiss your straight ass on the mouth!”

“We’re going to win!” Liam sputtered, and Louis grinned.

“Okay, excellent. Everyone now,” Louis said, and then looked over at Niall, “Niall, my little Irish flower?”

“If you say that again, I will smack on you on the mouth,” Niall said, “And we’re going to win,”

“That’s all I needed. Zayn?”

“We’re going to win,” Zayn said. He grinned when he said it, his eyes gleaming even in the darkness of the backstage. Louis smiled and nodded.

And then he turned to Harry, and he didn’t even have to say anything before Harry was speaking.

“We’re going to win,”

Louis grinned and then leaned forward and kissed Harry, right in front of the band and whatever assistants were milling around.

“Damn right we are,” he said when he pulled back, and Niall sighed.

“I can’t even be pissed at you two. There’s no point. You’re gay and in love and we’re going to win,”

Louis laughed, and Harry just smiled, and soon they were jumping up and down, repeating the same words over and over again until someone came over and told them to be quiet. And even then, the words keep circling through Harry’s brain.

They were going to win, they were going to win, they were going to win.

*******

They didn’t fucking win.

They got third out of three, which of course meant they basically lost. They lost with a laughable percent of the audience vote, like all the support and fan accounts and screaming outside the rehearsal buildings they had had in the last several weeks vanished when they most needed it.

It stung. It was almost worse than never getting this far at all, because they lost so close to the top, close enough to taste it, and there was a crowd gathered around them to witness the end of it all.

Harry didn’t cry on camera, even though he really, really wanted to. Louis was right there, with his hands stroking Harry’s face and shoulders and hands even in the middle of live post-elimination interviews. His magic was all around Harry, grounding and protective and smelling like a summer breeze.

It was enough to keep him together for the tapings, but not after. Liam cried first in the car, loud and red-faced. Zayn held his hand and sniffled hard. Niall kept his face in his hands and gulped furiously. Harry constantly lifted his sleeve, wiping hard at the tears and snot that are now flowing freely. It was disgusting, and he was sure he looked disgusting, too, but Louis held him tightly even though Harry could hear him sniffling, too.

When they pulled up to the contestant house and the driver unlocked their doors, it slowly sunk in. Now, they had no more rehearsals, no schedule, no record deal, and no idea what to to next.

It was snowing, at the very least, so when Harry sniffed back the last of his earlier tears as he got out, he thought maybe he could blame the cold making him feel stuffed up to anyone they might encounter inside the house.

“Well, come on, let’s go to bed,” Louis said, “I don’t think we have to pack up until the morning, anyways,”

“Penelope was just starting to settle down here,” Liam blubbered, his tears clearly not gone yet, “I was going to get her a new cage,”

“You can still get her a new cage, Liam,” Zayn said softly, but even his voice was wavering.

It had been a shitty night.

They trudged back into the house, and they were immediately greeted by a few people, mostly production assistants who were cleaning up the house. But apparently they’d gotten word about what happened, because as soon as the band wandered inside, the assistants rushed over to them.

“Hi, boys,” Nicole, one of the assistants Harry had actually grown to like, said. She leaned in and hugged a couple of them, rubbing their backs, “I think there’s some food left in the kitchen for you, I’m sure you’d like something to eat,”

“Sure,” Louis allowed, which was enough for Nicole and Jennifer, the other nearest assistant, to jump into action. They returned to the main living area after all the boys had sat down, and they brought trays of peanut butter sandwiches, tea and hot chocolate with them. They tried to talk about how proud they were of the boys, and how good they had done, and how they still had plenty to look forward to, but none of it exactly landed. Harry had to set down his hot chocolate mug at one point because he had trouble swallowing around the lump in his throat.

 “Maybe this will work out for you,” Jennifer offered, “I mean, so many people liked you. There have been some popular contestants that have still gotten deals after they’ve been eliminated,”

“Maybe,” Harry mumbled. He kept his head down through all of this, pulling at his own hands. He listened to the chatter around of him, of both his bandmates and the few other people lingering around, and the whole time he couldn’t say anything, not only because of the thick lump in his throat but also because he had no words to say.

They had gotten close to _something_ , and now there was nothing. You didn’t get anything out of being third, except being forgotten.

“Hey,” a soft voice said right before Harry got poked in the side. He looked over, and immediately his vision was filled with Louis, his big eyes and his somehow-still-tan face and his chapped lips.

“Come on,” Louis whispered, nudging his side again, and Harry slowly got to his feet. Louis guided him out of the room and towards the back hall, and then Harry found his boots and jacket by the door and pulled them on, following Louis out to the garden.  

“I’m okay,” he said, and Louis just turned back and smiled at him.

“I know you’re okay. I just wanted to watch the snow with my boyfriend,” Louis said. He reached out and grasped Harry’s bare hand in his gloved one, swinging their joined hands back and forth.

Louis didn’t say anything else, which Harry was grateful for, and he just looked up into the open sky, at the blackness and the stars and the other specks of white that were coming too close to be stars. The snow hit his forehead and his eyelashes and his lips and eventually he closed his eyes and just took in the cold and the feeling of Louis’s hand, which was kind of keeping his fingers warm, but his fingertips were all still stinging and would probably be numb soon. Whatever.

He opened his eyes eventually and looked over at Louis, who was already looking at him, and the way he was doing so made Harry think that Louis had been staring for a while already.

“I thought we were watching the snow,” Harry said.

“The snow looks prettier on you,” Louis replied easily, and then leaned forward, taking his free hand and brushing it over Harry’s lips. He let his hand drop and then lifted his fingers up to Harry’s hair, tugging them through his snow-flecked curls, and then leaned in even closer, kissing Harry on his already numbing lips. Louis’s lips felt cold, too, but they were still soft and persistent and _Louis’s_ , and exactly what Harry needed.

Louis pulled away and blinked, a few fat snowflakes clinging to his lashes.

“We’ll be okay, you know,” Louis said, “You and me, and all the other boys, too,”

“I…” Harry sighed. He wanted so badly to say _I know_ , but he couldn’t, “Maybe,”

“No, baby, not maybe,” Louis insisted, “Okay, yes, the band, maybe. Maybe bordering on yes, honestly, because I feel like even if we don’t get a record deal, we have at least a year of all of us figuring out ways to see each other just so we can cover more songs from the 90’s and fuck around. But you and me, that’s a sure fucking thing. We’re going to buy that house we want, and we’re going to be together,”

“And what’s the prediction on that?”

“Huh?”

“Well, you said we had a year on the band,” Harry said, “So what about us. How long do you think we’ll have?”

“Harry, you can’t seriously be asking me that,” Louis said, and then grabbed his hands again, squeezing hard.

“I’m banking on forever with you,” Louis said firmly, “Not just banking, I’ve put all my eggs in that basket. It’s always going to be you, I swear,”

Harry just stared at him, and swallowed, and then opened his mouth.

“Okay,”

“Okay?” Louis repeated, “Really? Are you actually agreeing with me? You believe what I’m saying?”

“I – yeah,” Harry said, and then tilted his head, his vision blurring a bit, “I love you,”

Louis smiled, the movement so easy, and now that Harry was seeing him smile he realized that he never wanted to look at anything else.

“I love you, too,” Louis said, and then leaned in and promptly pressed their lips together, running his gloved fingers up Harry’s arms.

Harry felt a flurry of weak snow press against his cheeks, and his bare ears and fingers burned with cold, but he kept pushing his lips against Louis.

He loved him. And for some reason, Louis said he wanted to love Harry forever.

Harry wanted to let him.

They pulled away, and Louis just looked at him, his mouth swollen and bright pink with cold, and then he looked down at where Harry’s fingers were gripping at his coat. He shook his head and pried Harry’s fingers off of him.

“Here, babe, take my gloves,” Louis said, already going to take his gloves off, “Your hands are bright red,”

“No, no, keep them,”

“Oh, and let us lose _and_ let your fingers fall off in one night?”

Harry actually managed to laugh, and maybe that was a good sign, that he could laugh about them losing even now.

“I’m fine, Louis. See?” Harry smiled and lifted his hands up, “I’ll be just fine – “

He couldn’t even finish, because flames overtook his hands.

But they didn’t burn. They covered his hands, yes, and they were warm, but the flames flickered and danced easily between his fingers, tickling his skin and undoubtedly touching him. But it wasn’t burning. It was just _there_.

“Harry? Harry, oh my god,” Louis gasped out, and Harry blinked up and met his eyes. Louis’s mouth stuttered, and then he took a step forward, “Does it…does it hurt?”

“No,” Harry blinked, “I, I was just thinking about my hands getting warm, and then…it came,”

He blinked, turning his hands over, palms up to palms down. The flames flickered and shifted easily over his joints and knuckles, sparking a bit in places but still being calm, gentle in a way his magic had never been before.  

This wasn’t like the fires he’d started randomly, even though he hadn’t fully meant to do it. It felt like he could control this, like it was different. Like what he always imagined proper magic should feel like.  

“Harry?” Louis’s voice came again, “Sorry, I don’t mean to go coach on you or whatever, but can you maybe try to…do something else with that?”

“Oh,” Harry said, “Um, let’s see,”

He blinked, trying to focus on the fire’s color. Soon, all the flames flickered and sparked with all different colors of rainbow, all of them swirling and bleeding into each other. He gasped and he heard Louis cry out happily, and then Harry lifted his hands up higher. The fire on his hands swirled and then lifted off his skin and instead swirled in the air until it formed a small orb, still shifting with several colors as it fell back down and settled itself easily into Harry’s hands.

Harry just watched, mesmerized as the ball of fire turned in his hands like a globe, and he could feel Louis breathing as he watched it, too.

“Harry,” he finally said, “You did it, baby,”

“I – “ Harry started, looking at what he had done, “I did. I _did_ something,”

“Hey, are you two coming – “ Niall’s voice cut through the air, but then stopped almost immediately, and then he was full-on shouting, “Holy fucking shit!”

They both looked to the back deck, and Niall was just standing there with wide eyes, still in his clothes from the performance, “Lads! Fuck, come out!”

“Fuck, what’s going on?” Liam shouted and then raced out. He was also in his performance outfit, and he was cradling Penelope between his hands, the little dragon dressed in a dog’s Christmas jumper for whatever reason. Zayn skittered out last, and once they were all there, they just stared at the ball in Harry’s hands for a long, long second.

And then they were all shouting and racing onto the yard, gathering around Harry once they reached him.

“Harry! Holy shit!” they were all shouting, and for the second time that day Harry wanted to cry, but for once for a very, very good reason.

“I don’t know how I did it!” Harry said.

“Doesn’t matter! You did!” Niall said, “This is a sign! It’s all going to be okay!”

“How is it a sign?” Harry asked, his voice wavering a bit.

“Well, no offense, but it was more likely we were going to win this thing than you were going to ever get any sort of magic figured out,” Niall said, and then threw up his hands, “No offense! But you did it! And, well, we already lost. But maybe this has to mean we’ll be okay! Like, we’ll get a record deal or something!”

“Let’s not focus on the bloody record deal for once. There is a literal ball of gay-colored fire right there,” Louis said, pointing to the ball.

“I – one sec,” Harry said, and then just blinked and the fire was cleanly extinguished, not even a trace of smoke left behind. They all screamed again, and this time all of them yanked Harry into a hug. Louis had his entire face buried into his neck and Harry could feel Penelope’s scaly little head resting on his hand from where she was perched on Liam’s shoulder.

They stayed like that for a long, long time, wrapped in each other and bouncing up and down and heartbroken and deliriously happy at the exact same time.

It was going to be fine.

*******

_Four years later._

“Louis,” Harry said before he had even opened his eyes, “I’m sleeping,”

Louis laughed above him, and a moment later he felt a fist land on his stomach. He groaned weakly and brought one leg up, pressing his knee close to his chest in defense.

“I’m trying to sleep,” Harry amended, and again, Louis laughed.

“Your boots are on, you fuck,” Louis said, and Harry cracked open one eye and looked up at him.

“You’re wearing a jumper in July,” he said and then shut his eye again, “We all wear weird things sometimes,”

Louis laughed again, and then he weakly shoved Harry’s shoulder.

“Come on, come out for a bit. Liam’s going to go feed Penelope,”

“I’ve seen him do that before,” Harry said, and Louis huffed.

“I will yank you out of this bunk, do not test me, Styles,”

Harry finally opened his eyes, blinking me fully at Louis, scanning over his pushed-back hair and his giant jumper and his joggers, and he shook his head.

“I would see if you meant that, but, I trust you,” Harry sighed, and then swung his legs out of the bunk and managed to climb out.

“Can you at least put on something else?” Harry asked, “I’m sweating just looking at you in all that,”

Louis just glanced up at him, and then sighed and yanked off his jumper, leaving him in just a vest, and then he plastered his hands over his hair, smoothing it down.

“You fucked up my headband now,” he said, “You twat,”

Harry laughed, and came over to peck Louis on the peck. He just glared at him and then reached up and yanked Harry’s headscarf entirely out of his hair.

“Oops,” he said flatly, and then he was walking out of the tour bus, leaving Harry to trip out after him and tie his scarf as he went.

When he finally got outside, Liam was standing just outside of the tour bus, a garbage bag full of cabbage at his feet and his hands on his hips. Zayn and Niall were standing nearby, staring up at the sky, and they didn’t even glance over when Louis and Harry came over to join them.

“Is she coming?” Louis asked, and Liam lifted a hand and held up a finger.

“Wait,” he said softly. He lifted his chin closer to the sky, and then he slowly grinned.

Harry glanced up, and saw a dark shape gliding through the sky, slowly growing larger and closer until Penelope touched down on the asphalt in front of Liam, crying out happily like a dog whose owner had just come home.

“Hi, gorgeous,” Liam said, and moved forward to wrap his arms around his dragon’s neck, “It’s lunch time, huh?”

Penelope squealed again at the word and Liam smiled and stepped back, grabbing a cabbage from the bag.

“Catch!” he called, then tossed it in the air. Penelope squawked and then lifted herself onto her bag legs, her wings spreading out wide as she craned her neck up and caught the cabbage in between her jaws.

“Good girl!” Liam called, and then stroked her neck again when she came back down.

Maybe it was kind of weird to have a now-ten-foot-long dragon traveling with them at all times, but Penelope genuinely seemed to enjoy flying from venue to venue. Only during European legs, though. The rest of the tour, Liam forced her to stay at the farm in Manchester he’d bought specifically for the purpose of keeping Penelope when he was away. But when they stayed close to home, she was always around.

“Louis, want to help me with this next one?” Liam asked, and Louis grinned.

“For sure, mate,” he said. Liam nodded and tossed another cabbage up, and this time Louis lifted his hand, making the cabbage float up higher and higher. Penelope’s wings flapped and she was soon flying up, chasing the cabbage. Louis made the vegetable fly back and forth for a little while, forcing her to trail it, and then he finally let it stay still and she happily caught it and began to chomp it down.

Harry just watched the dragon flying around, chasing after her lunch as Liam threw up more and more cabbages and Louis continued to make them float. He still probably needed a nap, but then again, this was a perfectly good use of his time, too.

“When’s tech check tonight?” he asked, stretching his arms above his head, and Louis glanced over at him and smiled.

“In a couple hours,” he said, “What’s your plan for tonight?”

Harry smiled as he dropped his arms. Since last tour, when they’d started to put in more stage features, their tech checks got more complicated and also a lot more personal. Zayn would prepare for each tour by making up some giant murals and then animating the figures in his paintings during the show to make them dance around or detach from their canvases and fly over the audience. Louis would usually offer to manipulate the air waves somehow to make the sound as loud and clear as possible the final song, and when they were playing open-stage European venues, Liam would sometimes convince Penelope to fly over the audience and greet everyone.

And every night, Harry would press his hands together, find his focus, and make fireworks erupt overhead. Every night they were different colors and shapes, and every night he would look over his shoulder at Louis as the fireworks disappeared, just so he could catch his eyes and smile.

Harry didn’t need much help with his magic anymore. It barely flared up unwanted anymore. But without fail, any time he was about to work up one of his displays, he felt a calm, cooling magic flow over him, like the very air around him was offering him support as he went.

Louis had done that every show since the X Factor tour, even before Harry had started the fireworks. And he had also insisted he was never going to stop.

“Hm,” Harry finally said, tilting his head as he tried to think about what he wanted to make that night, “I think a bunch of random colors, really. Something rainbow,”

“That’s gay,” Louis nodded, “I approve,”

“You approve of every idea I have,”

“Yeah, well, they’re all good,” Louis said, and Harry just sighed and shook his head as he looked back at Liam, who was holding the final cabbage in his hands and grinning.

“Hey, Harry?” Liam called, “I think she could use something grilled for her last course, what do you think?”

“Yeah,” Harry nodded, “Yeah, I think she does,”

Liam smiled and then tossed the cabbage up, Penelope watching it closely as it flew up.

Out of the corner of his eye, Harry saw Louis lift a hand at the same time Harry twitched his own fingers up. The cabbage floated high above their heads, making Penelope fly up for it, and then a few moments later a few flames broke out along its surface before quickly dissipating, leaving the cabbage perfectly charred as Penelope finally caught it and gobbled it up.

Louis grinned, letting his hand drop as he turned back to Louis.

“Nicely done,”

“I just roasted a vegetable, it’s not really a massive feat,”

“Yeah, well, what do I always say,” Louis said, “Magic is fucking pointless,”

“At least your shit gest to be in the show,” Niall cut in, “I have to bloody wait for one of you to break an arm before I’m of any use around here,”

“Niall, what did I tell you about eavesdropping on our personal conversations?” Louis sighed.

“I’ve been eavesdropping on you fucks for four years and counting now and I’m going to stop when this band is dead in the ground,” Niall said. Louis rolled his eyes and turned away, leaning his head on Harry’s shoulder, tilting his mouth up to whisper close to his ear.

“Sleep on the bus with me tonight,” Louis said, “I’ve missed you,”

“I can barely get comfortable in there,” Harry sighed, “I don’t know,”

“Come on,” Louis said, “Remember the X-Factor bunks? They were the same size and we used to share those all the thing,”

“We were the same size then,” Harry said, “And yes, I remember,”

“One point off for the height comment. One point back for remembering our humble origins,” Louis said, and then smiled, “Okay, fine. But I have a proposition,”

“Oh?” Harry smiled, and reached up to stroke a knuckle over Louis’s jaw.

“You make the gayest fucking rainbow fire display you can tonight,” Louis smiled, “And I’ll join you in your fancy hotel room like a sell out. Deal?”

Harry laughed, and he felt magic crackle warmly against his palm, warming Louis’s skin just a bit as he cradled the side of his face and then brought his lips close to Louis’s, nearly close enough to kiss him, but not quite, not yet.

Louis brought his hand up to Harry’s chest, a soft burst of warm skin flowing over the thin fabric of his shirt, and finally, Harry brought his lips to Louis’s, only pulling away to smile and answer his question.

“Deal.”

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments are swell, please consider leaving them


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